


Reading Percy Jackson: Book 6 - The Lost Hero

by Lorixjake



Series: Reading Percy Jackson [6]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Book 1: The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus), Characters reading the Percy Jackson books, Children of the Big Three (Percy Jackson), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Bonding, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Gods become better parents, Jealous Apollo, M/M, Protective Apollo (Percy Jackson), Protective Poseidon (Percy Jackson), Reading the Books, Slow Burn, Thalia Grace & Percy Jackson Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-21 14:14:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30023016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorixjake/pseuds/Lorixjake
Summary: They've made it through the first Great Prophecy, now they must read about the second. New bonds are formed and friendships will be tested to the limit.
Relationships: Amphitrite/Poseidon (Percy Jackson), Annabeth Chase & Connor Stoll, Annabeth Chase & Percy Jackson, Apollo/Percy Jackson, Clarisse La Rue/Chris Rodriguez, Hades & Poseidon (Percy Jackson), Hades/Persephone (Percy Jackson), Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Hera/Zeus (Percy Jackson), Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Katie Gardner/Travis Stoll, Leo Valdez & Charles Beckendorf, Nico di Angelo & Thalia Grace & Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Percy Jackson & Grover Underwood, Percy Jackson & Poseidon, Percy Jackson & Triton, Rachel Elizabeth Dare & Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Silena Beauregard & Clarisse la Rue, Silena Beauregard/Charles Beckendorf
Series: Reading Percy Jackson [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1834675
Comments: 246
Kudos: 499





	1. Percy Jackson and the Staff of Hermes

**Author's Note:**

> So I had the first chapter of Lost Hero done and ready to post, then I saw how many requests I had for the Staff of Hermes to be next so...here you go. Enjoy :) The story about Leo and Buford the table will be done after the Lost Hero.

Athena read the title out.

“What?” Hermes yelped. “What’s this about my staff?”

“We won’t know unless you let me read.” Athena rolled her eyes, but Hermes wasn’t looking at her, he was eyeing Percy.

“I’ve got no idea.” Percy shrugged. “It probably hasn’t happened yet.”

**Annabeth and I were relaxing on the Great Lawn in Central Park when she ambushed me with a question.**

Apollo grimaced. That was not a good start.

**“You forgot, didn’t you?”…one frown from her and I freaked. What had I done wrong?**

Apollo frowned. He hoped Percy wasn’t that unsettled with him, but he made a mental note not to drop questions like that on his boyfriend.

“I know that feeling.” Beckendorf commiserated.

**I mentally reviewed the picnic list: Comfy blanket? Check. Annabeth’s favorite pizza with extra olives?**

Connor made a mental note of Annabeth’s favourite pizza. It was always good information to know.

**Check. Chocolate toffee from La Maison du Chocolat? Check. Chilled sparkling water with twist of lemon? Check.**

Connor began to wish he had a notebook to write all of this down. He was sure to forget. Except the pizza. Seriously, who had extra olives?

**Weapons in case of sudden Greek mythological apocalypse? Check…Second, she was too smart. She’d see right through me.**

“Wise choice.” Annabeth told him with a grin.

“It’s just not worth trying to lie. I’m terrible at it.” Percy laughed.

**So I did what I do best. I stared at her blankly and acted dumb.**

Poseidon and Apollo both noted that phrasing. What Percy did best was _act_ dumb. Of course, they both knew Percy was intelligent but the fact that he acknowledged that he acted dumb quite often was interesting and they wanted to know why he did it.

**Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Percy, today is September eighteenth…that wasn’t the answer she’d been hoping for.**

“That makes it your one-month anniversary.” Silena told him.

“Oh.” Percy shrugged. He hadn’t realized that was overly important. Yearly anniversaries were obviously important but monthly ones? He guessed as a demigod he was always lucky to live another month so it did make sense to celebrate while they could.

All the females in the room, except Artemis, rolled their eyes at his reaction.

**It didn’t help my concentration that Annabeth looked so good today…I just wished that their fierce look wasn’t directed at me.**

Apollo scowled while Annabeth smiled at Percy.

**I tried to think. One month ago we’d defeated the Titan Kronos…I have to remember birthdays, holidays, and all anniversaries?**

“Er, do you expect me to remember all those because the date you asked me out is a bit skewed by weird time travel magic?” Percy asked Apollo in a whisper.

“I’ll let you off that one. And my birthday too, seeing as that’s a little difficult.” Apollo grinned at him and Percy let out a sigh of relief.

“We can make a new anniversary once we get this all sorted out and I get back to my time.” Percy promised.

“I’ll hold you too that.” Apollo nodded.

**I tried for a smile. “That’s why we’re having this great picnic, right?”…take me out for a special dinner tonight. Remember?**

“Probably not.” Grover chuckled at his friend’s predicament. Percy frowned. Why would he do that to himself? And surely he wouldn’t have forgotten if he had promised to plan something special? He was forgetful but not _that_ forgetful.

**It’s not that I expect it, but you said you had something planned. So…?”…Annabeth kissed me, which had sort of sent me into a fog.**

Percy nodded to himself. If that version of him felt even remotely like he did after Apollo kissed him he could understand saying or promising anything without actually realizing it.

**Maybe a Greek god had disguised himself as me and made her that promise as a prank. Or maybe I was just a rotten boyfriend.**

“You’re definitely not a rotten boyfriend.” Apollo stated.

“Good to know but give it time.” Percy told him.

“No matter how long I wait, you could never be a terrible boyfriend.”

**Time to fess up. I cleared my throat. “Well—”…Lettered on the side were the words: HERNIAS ARE US**

“What?” Triton asked as he burst out laughing.

“I’m dyslexic.” Percy reminded him.

**Wait…sorry. I’m dyslexic. I squinted and decided it probably read: HERMES EXPRESS**

“That’s not even close.” Hermes pouted. Apollo wanted to cheer on his brother for interrupting Percy’s date.

**“Oh, good,” I muttered. “We’ve got mail.”…I knew from experience he was actually in his mid-five-thousands.**

“Not too far off then.” Hermes grinned. “I think I’m looking good for a guy that old.”

**Hermes. Messenger of the gods. Personal friend, dispenser of heroic quests, and frequent cause of migraine headaches.**

“Personal friend?” Hermes asked, smiling at Percy.

“I’d say so, but I’ve got a feeling you’re about to give me a quest in the middle of my date so maybe not.” Hermes pouted. That changed to a smirk when he saw Apollo mouthing a ‘thank you’ over at him.

“I do agree with the causer of migraines though.” Dionysus drawled.

“Just like his children.” Katie said, smirking at Travis.

“Hey!” All the Hermes kids protested. Travis pouted at Katie who just shrugged.

“Easter bunnies on our roof.” She reminded him.

**He looked upset. He kept patting his pockets and wringing his hands. Either he’d lost something important or he’d had too many espressos at the Mount Olympus Starbucks.**

“You lost your staff?” Apollo asked, trying, and failing, to smother his laughter. Hermes glowered at his brother. It was not funny! He needed his staff!

“Serves you right.” Athena told Hermes.

**Finally he spotted me and beckoned, Get over here!...saved me from explaining myself to Annabeth, I was too relieved to care.**

“Really?” Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

“I doubt I’ll stay relieved for long.” Percy assured her.

**“Bummer.” I tried to sound regretful…If there’s an etiquette guide for that, I haven’t read it.**

“You don’t say.” Dionysus muttered sarcastically.

“Usually, the etiquette is to kneel.” Poseidon told his son.

“Yeah, but I’m guessing it’s also supposed to be an honour to be given a quest as opposed to an annoyance.” Percy pulled a face.

“It should be, yes.” Apollo nodded.

“It’s only been a month since we saved Olympus. I think we’ve earnt a bit of a break from quests.” Percy muttered.

“You have.” Poseidon agreed.

**I’m never sure if I’m supposed to shake hands…I’d also fought his demigod son Luke, who’d been corrupted by the Titan Kronos,**

Hermes grimaced at the reminder.

**in a mortal combat smack-down for the fate of the world…I decided to start simple. “Hi.”**

“That works.” Hermes nodded. “I’m good with that.”

**Hermes scanned the park as if he was afraid of being watched…She’ll have to swear to keep her mouth shut.”**

“I have a name.” Annabeth glared at Hermes.

“Also, why does Annabeth need to swear to not say anything, but Percy doesn’t?” Connor frowned. Hermes shrugged.

**Annabeth crossed her arms. “The girl can hear you…She already thinks she’s so much cleverer than I am.”**

“It’s a little late for that.” Athena smirked over at Hermes. He scowled. “And I am cleverer than you.”

“So you frequently tell us.” Hermes rolled his eyes. “Saying it often doesn’t make it true.”

“No, but it is true all the same.” Athena pointed out loftily.

**“She is,” Annabeth said. Of course, she’s prejudiced. Athena is her mom.**

“It’s not prejudice. It’s stating facts.” Annabeth shrugged. Athena smiled at her daughter.

**Hermes glared at her. “Promise. Before I explain the problem…“It was stolen. And I wasn’t asking for your help, girl!”**

“No, you were about to ask for Percy’s which is pretty much the same as asking for Annabeth’s.” Grover said.

“Don’t talk to my daughter like that, Hermes.” Athena said warningly.

“The great thief has now been stolen from.” Apollo sniggered.

“Oh, shut up.” Hermes grumbled.

**“Fine,” she said. “Solve your own problem…my girlfriend, and I didn’t want to be on either side of that.**

“Well, it makes a change. Usually it’s you picking the fights.” Triton laughed.

**A little background: Annabeth used to adventure…Luke died in war. Hermes and Annabeth blamed each other.**

Hermes grimaced. He knew he had a much bigger portion of the blame than Annabeth, or anyone else. Now he knew Luke’s fate was set and nobody could change Fate.

Apollo thought it might be a _little_ much for him to hope Hermes blasted Annabeth to pieces considering he was fairly certain now that she wasn’t going to steal his boyfriend.

**Confused? Welcome to my world…Let me hear him out, and I’ll meet you back at the picnic blanket, okay?”**

“Percy playing the peacemaker. This is a novelty.” Rachel laughed.

“And he actually seems to be quite good at it.” Grover said.

“Well, if there is anyone Annabeth will listen to, it’s Percy.” Thalia pointed out.

**I gave her a smile that I hoped conveyed something like…It’s not my fault! Please do not kill me!**

There were a few chuckles.

**Before she could protest or cause me bodily harm…couple of boxes labeled TOXIC SERPENTS. THIS END UP.**

“Not a good place to sit.” Poseidon said worriedly. His son had been poisoned quite enough for one lifetime.

**Maybe that wasn’t the best place to sit…DRAKON EGGS, DO NOT STORE NEAR EXPLOSIVES.**

“And yet, it seems like the safest place to sit.” Connor muttered.

“If you’re not supposed to store the eggs near explosives, why do you have explosives in there too?” Chris asked his dad.

“Limited space.” Hermes shrugged.

“You really should be more careful.” Apollo told him. It set his nerves on edge to have Percy near so many dangerous things, most of which could kill him easily.

**“So what happened?” I asked him…staff of Asclepius the medicine god, blah, blah, blah. But whatever.)**

“They can use either.” Apollo said. “It’s more of a personal choice than anything.”

“But Asclepius is the god of medicine and stuff so why would they use Hermes’ staff?” Percy frowned.

“Because Hermes was the god of medicine before Asclepius was born.” Apollo told him.

“Why wasn’t it you as you’re god of healing?” Will wanted to know. Apollo shrugged.

“That’s just the way duties were divided.” Hermes stated.

**I was kind of fond of George and Martha…“Yes, yes. He works there. Network television.”**

“What?” Annabeth asked curiously.

“No idea. I can’t think why a television company would hire Janus. He’d be a nightmare.” Hermes frowned.

**“Say what?” The last time I’d met Janus he’d been…He loves ordering new shows and canceling them after two episodes.**

“That would get frustrating.” Piper muttered.

**God of beginnings and endings, after all…“So I left my caduceus on the dashboard and ran inside with the box.**

“Why do you care about double parking?” Rachel wondered. “Isn’t your truck like invisible to most mortals?”

“That doesn’t mean I can just park where I like.” Hermes looked scandalized by the thought. Everyone gave him strange looks.

**Then I realized I needed to have Janus sign for the delivery…“If that ugly brute has harmed my snakes, I swear by the Styx—”**

“So you know who stole it? Well, that’s a good start.” Percy said.

**“Hold on. You know who took the staff?”…I talked with the wind nymphs. The thief was clearly Cacus.”**

“Urgh. Not _him_.” Apollo scowled. In fact most of the gods looked unhappy at the name. Hephaestus sighed. He hated that his son had become a thief instead of making his own things. Cacus was one of his greatest disappointments.

“What did he do to you?” Percy asked. Apollo just continued to scowl.

“He stole his cattle.” Hermes grinned.

“Didn’t you do that?”

“Yep.” Hermes said smugly. Apollo glowered at him.

**“Cacus.” I’d had years of practice looking dumb when people threw out Greek names I didn’t know. It’s a skill of mine.**

“I’m not sure that can be counted as a skill.” Triton told him in amusement.

“Sure it does.” Percy said.

“It does take something special to know about the Greek gods and myths being real and not bother to read up on any of it.” Rachel laughed.

“It’s quicker for people just tell me what I need to know when I need to know it.” Percy shrugged.

**Annabeth keeps telling me to read a book of Greek myths…“A small giant, not one of the big ones.”**

Piper, Jason and Leo exchanged looks. Was he working for Gaea already? Could she be planning the destruction of the gods already? Leo knew she had been messing with his life for years so it was definitely a possibility.

**“A small giant.”**

**“Yes. Maybe ten feet tall.”**

“Practically miniscule.” Percy muttered sarcastically.

**“Tiny, then,” I agreed…But I did it first, and with much more style.**

Apollo glared at Hermes yet again.

“You really need to look after those cattle better.” Percy told his boyfriend. “By my count they’ve been stolen at least twice and then looked after by a monster who turned them into burgers.”

Apollo’s glare deepened but Percy wasn’t too concerned. Apollo hated to admit that Percy was correct. He really needed to take better care of his cattle. He needed somewhere that would actually protect them. No place sprung to mind. Maybe he could take them to his and Percy’s island? It wouldn’t take much effort to create a paddock for them with some nice grass.

**At any rate, Cacus is always stealing things from the gods…why you need me, a sixteen-year-old kid, to do it for you.”**

“Because gods need heroes for that sort of thing or the mortal world wouldn’t survive.” Annabeth said. “They tend to be a little destructive.”

“So is Percy.” Thalia snickered.

**Hermes tilted his head. “Percy, that almost sounded like sarcasm…and believe me, that happens a lot. We need heroes for that sort of errand.”**

Aphrodite frowned unhappily at Hermes. She didn’t lose her hairbrush _that_ often.

**“Uh-huh. And if you went looking for the staff yourself, it might be a little embarrassing.”**

Hermes went a little red and fought back a scowl. So much for keeping it quiet. Stupid books.

**Hermes pursed his lips. “All right. Yes. The other gods…I’d be ridiculed for centuries.**

“Maybe not _centuries_.” Ares told him while sniggering rather loudly.

“You’re right, it will be millennia.” Dionysus smirked.

“I hate all of you. This hasn’t even happened yet.” Hermes complained.

“But it would have done if we hadn’t had to go through this reading. The almighty thief will be stolen from.” Ares grinned. Hermes pouted.

**The idea is too horrible. I need this resolved quickly…Hermes smiled. “What a fine offer! Thank you.**

“It don’t think that was actually an offer.” Percy grumbled. “In fact, I’m certain it wasn’t. I was just clarifying what it was you wanted.”

**And I’ll need it before five o’clock this evening so I can finish my deliveries.**

“By five?” Poseidon frowned. “They were having lunch so it must be at least midday already.”

“If I wait any longer one of you will notice.” Hermes explained grumpily.

**The caduceus serves as my signature pad…“I’m sure you can figure that out. And just a warning: Cacus breathes fire.”**

“Oh I’m so glad you’re feeling helpful.” Percy muttered sarcastically.

“Of course he breathes fire.” Annabeth sighed.

**“Naturally,” I said…petrify me if I told anyone about the theft.**

“Hermes.” Poseidon glowered at his nephew.

“Well, it’s not like it matters now. Everybody knows.” Hermes complained.

“That is not the point.” Poseidon snapped.

“Oh I wouldn’t turn him to stone. I happen to like Percy.”

“Gee, thanks.” Percy muttered.

“No but you would turn my daughter to stone.” Athena now glared at Hermes too. He just shrugged.

**I swallowed the sawdust taste out of my mouth. “Of course.”…An idea occurred to me. Yes—I do get ideas occasionally.**

“You have plenty of ideas. They are just usually dangerous and life threatening.” Poseidon said grimly. Percy grinned.

**“How about we trade favors?” I suggested…“Of course. ” I told him what I wanted for my reward.**

“What could you want?” Travis frowned.

“Probably help organizing a dinner for me and Annabeth.” Percy shrugged. Connor and Apollo both scowled.

**I was in better spirits when I rejoined Annabeth…She didn’t slap me, but she looked like she wanted to.**

“You do realize it’s a bad idea to turn down a request for help from a god?” Clarisse pointed out. “As you told Percy when he didn’t want to get dad’s shield back.”

“Yeah, and now I understand far better why Percy reacted the way he did.” Annabeth muttered. She didn’t feel the same way about Hermes now as she clearly did in the future. She knew Fate couldn’t be messed with and Hermes was far from the only god who was a terrible parent. Hopefully the changes Percy had wished for would prevent what happened to Luke from happening to anyone else.

**“Why is tracking down a fire-breathing giant good news?...George and Martha must be terrified—”**

“Poor George and Martha.” Percy frowned. He was quite fond of those snakes really.

**“Is this an elaborate joke?” she asked...But please—no more promises. let’s just find this giant.”**

“Hey, I always come up with something in the end.” Percy protested. “And now a god owes me a favour so I’m sure it’ll be great.” Apollo and Connor looked rather unhappy about what Percy might have planned.

**She stowed our blanket in her backpack and put away…I asked. “Cacus is supposed to be underground.”**

“It’s at least worth a try.” Beckendorf shrugged. “Just because he lives underground doesn’t mean he will be there all the time. Or at least it might be able to show you the entrance to where he is living.”

**Annabeth shrugged. “Worth a try. Shield, I want to see Cacus.”…“That’s Secaucus, New Jersey. Read the sign on the water tower.”**

Rachel laughed and so did Beckendorf.

“You really had to give it a sense of humour?” Annabeth asked him in exasperation.

“Hey, I probably didn’t do anything. Most magical items have a limited mind of their own.” He reminded her.

**She rapped her knuckles on the bronze surface…train track that had been turned into a park with trees and wildflowers.**

“I like that place.” Grover smiled.

“It’s pretty nice.” Percy agreed.

**I remembered my mom and stepdad taking me there…“Why would the police seal off a hole in the street?”**

“Well, there is steam coming out of it.” Connor pointed out.

“Which probably isn’t a good sign.” Travis continued.

“Steam hopefully means fire breathing giant.” Percy said but his tone was quite unenthusiastic.

**“I remember this,” Annabeth said. “It was on the news yesterday.”…digging a new service tunnel or something, and a fire broke out.”**

“Fire, like a fire breathing giant?” Leo suggested.

“Seems likely.” Jason agreed.

**“A fire,” I said. “As in, maybe a fire-breathing giant?…boyfriend wants to take me to a dangerous cave to fight a fire-breathing giant.”**

“Well, when you say _wants_ to, that is probably an exaggeration.” Percy stated. “I don’t really want to go either.”

**“You’re awesome,” I said…Apparently even monsters wanted to stay here.**

“I wouldn’t call that a good thing.” Katie muttered.

“No, that is a downside.” Rachel agreed.

**We made our way to the construction site…“We climb down,” she said. “We find the giant. We get the caduceus.”**

“You’ve been spending too much time with the boy.” Athena sighed.

“Well, our plans usually go to Hades anyway, why bother making them in the first place?” Percy shrugged.

“No, _your_ plans usually go to Hades.” Annabeth corrected. “Mine work perfectly.”

“Not all the time.” Thalia said pointedly. Annabeth flushed and glared at her friend.

**“Wow,” I said. “Both wise and strategic.”**

“Shut up.” Annabeth glared at him.

**“Shut up.”**

Everybody laughed.

**We climbed over the barricade, ducked under the police tape…I didn’t want to know what was in that water.**

Percy and Annabeth both grimaced. This was going to be even worse than they had thought.

“Nothing like a bit of sewage.” Travis said cheerfully. Both of them glared at him and he grinned.

**There wasn’t much light, but the cavern looked like a cross…skinned, gutted, and ready for butchering.**

Apollo and Hera both scowled furiously. If Apollo found out that Geryon had sold his beloved cattle to this scum he was going to have to bring him back just to kill him all over again. He hoped Percy made Cacus’ death as painful as possible.

“Definitely Cacus’ place.” Hermes grimaced.

“Lovely.” Leo wrinkled his nose.

**Judging from the smell and the flies, they weren’t very fresh…except for the pesky fact that I loved cheeseburgers.**

Grover sighed despairingly while Thalia laughed and nodded her approval.

**No sign of a giant. I hoped he wasn’t home…as if made by a huge snake. Oh…bad thought.**

“Yes, bad thought. Do not think of more monsters because you’ll probably summon them with your luck.” Apollo grimaced.

**I didn’t like the idea of walking to the other side of the cave…“I think that’s how they dug the subway system a long time ago. ”**

“What about the cars?” Pollux wanted to know.

“Maybe the giant did the same thing with them.” Dakota suggested.

“Or he has another entrance somewhere in the city that he can get bigger stuff through.” Beckendorf offered.

**“What about the other junk?” I asked. “The cars and…why he hated being underground. It felt oppressive and dangerous.**

Grover was nodding. “Underground is bad.”

“Surely it can’t be worse than the Labyrinth?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t know but it sounds horrible.” Percy grimaced. “You’d better take better care of your staff in future.” He glared at Hermes.

“You’re doing the whole of New York good by getting rid of this guy.” Hermes pointed out.

**Demigods didn’t belong here. Something was waiting down that tunnel…when a groan echoed from the far tunnel.**

Apollo and Poseidon gripped Percy tightly.

**We ducked behind the bulldozer just as the giant…Secaucus, New Jersey, was a lot nicer-looking than Cacus the giant,**

“That’s pretty gross.” Rachel wrinkled her nose.

“I don’t think any giant is exactly pretty.” Clarisse muttered.

“Definitely not.” Aphrodite put in. “They are hideous, with no fashion sense whatsoever.”

**and that’s not a compliment to anybody…chest hair of a red/pink/orange color not found in nature.**

“Ok, that really is hideous.”

“A ginger giant?” Leo laughed. This guy sounded a lot less scary than the giants he had seen on their recent quest but a lot more gross.

“In valentine pattern boxers?” Percy fought not to gag just at the idea.

**Annabeth made a small gagging sound. “It’s the ginger giant.”…Annabeth and I looked at each other. She mouthed, Oops.**

“Wonderful.” Apollo growled. “Now he knows you are there.”

“He would have found out sooner or later.” Percy shrugged.

“Well, I’d prefer later.” Poseidon muttered.

**“Come on!” the giant said. “I don’t appreciate…despite the fact that he wore Valentine boxer shorts.**

“I wouldn’t count on it. Giants aren’t known for their intelligence.” Athena scoffed.

“He was smart enough to be able to steal from a thief.” Apollo smirked. Hermes glowered. Apollo considered the teasing the least Hermes deserved for putting Percy in danger. And for probably helping Percy organize what was likely to be a great dinner with Annabeth later.

**I took out my ballpoint pen and uncapped it…He sauntered over to the row of fly-specked cow carcasses.**

“Oh don’t tell me he actually eats that?” Thalia looked slightly green at the idea.

“Again, giants are not the smartest and they are definitely not picky about their food.” Ares shrugged.

“Yeah, but there is not being picky and then there is eating that.” Percy said, gagging a little.

**My stomach twisted. I muttered, “Oh, he’s not really gonna—”…downed the carcass in three massive bites, bones and all.**

“Woah. Yuck.” Connor wrinkled his nose.

“At least he cooked it first?” Beckendorf offered weakly.

**“Yep,” Annabeth said weakly. “He really did it.”…polite for a guy to protect his girlfriend from instant incineration.**

“Thanks.” Annabeth grinned at him. “That is very nice of you.”

“Yes, that’s very sweet of you, but I don’t want you getting incinerated either.” Poseidon told his son.

“And Annabeth can take care of herself.” Apollo pointed out in a grumpy tone.

“I’m at least a little fireproof.” Percy reminded him with an indulgent smile. “I have a better chance of surviving than Annabeth.”

**“Um, yeah,” I said. “We might be customers. What do you sell?”…I steal only the best! I’m a son of Hephaestus. I know quality fakes when I see them.”**

“Wait? He’s a son of Hephaestus?” Beckendorf frowned in disgust. “But he’s a thief. We’re supposed to make stuff, not steal it.” He protested.

“Doesn’t that make him our half-brother?” Leo grimaced. This disgusting giant who wore valentine boxers was his brother? That was not a good thought.

“Yep.” Beckendorf looked as unhappy with this at Leo felt.

“Yes, well…” Hephaestus looked embarrassed. “What can you do?”

**I frowned. “A son of Hephaestus? Then shouldn’t you be making things rather than stealing them?”**

“Glad you think so too.” Beckendorf muttered.

**Cacus snorted. “Too much work!**

“What? But making stuff is awesome!” Leo exclaimed. There was nothing better than building and creating stuff. Beckendorf nodded his agreement.

**Oh, sometimes if I find a high-quality item I’ll make my own copies. But mostly it’s easier to steal things.**

Hermes nodded. He might not like the giant, and definitely didn’t like that he’d stolen his Caduceus, but he couldn’t disagree with this thinking.

**I started with cattle thieving, you know…“Something real. And magic. But I guess you don’t have anything like that.”**

“Good job, appeal to his ego.” Hermes nodded.

“Hopefully he can show you the caduceus.” Connor said. “So you can steal it back.”

**“Ha!” Cacus clapped his hands. “A high-end shopper…“Hermes’s staff,” I said. “The caduceus.”**

“Too specific. He’ll know dad sent you.” Travis shook his head in disappointment.

**The giant’s face turned as red as his hair. His eyes narrowed…“Did he just call me Hermes’s kid? I’m going stab him in the—”**

“Hey, it’s not that bad being my kid.” Hermes glared at her.

“I guess it’s more to do with how my future self feels about you.” Annabeth said in a small voice, hoping he understood she didn’t blame him here. Not to the point of hating him anyway.

**“I’m Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon,” I told the giant…I looked him in the eyes and hoped my threat would work.**

“Probably not. Nothing’s that easy with you.” Apollo grumbled.

“Tell me about it.” Percy complained.

“It was worth a try though.” Annabeth shot him a smile.

“You’d think killing Kronos would at least give him some pause.” Katie pointed out.

**I know it seems ridiculous, a sixteen-year-old…But alas, the only demigod who ever defeated me was Hercules himself.”**

“Urgh. Hercules again.” Percy groaned as Zeus puffed out his chest in pride. He glared at Percy as he registered the demigod’s words and annoyed tone.

“Doesn’t this guy know you’ve beaten a bunch of monsters that Hercules did?” Connor wondered. “And a bunch he did.”

“Obviously not.” Beckendorf shrugged. “Well, his mistake for not being scared.”

**I turned to Annabeth and shook my head in exasperation…Annabeth shrugged. “He had a great publicist.”**

“And my son was a great hero.” Zeus scowled. Artemis scoffed.

**The giant kept boasting. “For centuries, I was the terror of Italy!...You’ll never get the caduceus. I have plans for that!”**

“Well, that doesn’t sound good.” Reyna stated.

“Monster plans are never good.” Michael replied grimly.

“And he could do a lot of damage with a godly item of power.” Thalia grimaced.

**He raised his hand and the staff of Hermes appeared in his grip…Percy! A reptilian voice spoke in my mind. Thank the gods!**

“I’m guessing that’s Martha.” Percy smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard George say an entire sentence without mentioning rats or food.”

The Hermes kids all felt another pang of jealousy that Percy knew their dad’s snakes well enough to tell something like that. After reading the past five books, they all could have made that guess too but Percy would have known without having to do that.

“Martha is the…politer of the two.” Hermes smiled.

**Another snaky voice, deeper and grumpier, said, Yes, I haven’t been fed in hours.**

“Yep. That’s George.” Percy laughed.

“He doesn’t change much.” Hermes grinned.

**“Martha, George,” I said. “Are you guys all right?”…There are some nice rats down here. Could you catch us some?**

“I think there are slightly more important things to deal with.” Katie rolled her eyes.

“Nothing is more important to George than his rats.” Percy smirked.

“Not even being rescued?” Travis raised an eyebrow.

“Apparently not.” Hermes shrugged.

**George, stop! Martha chided. We have bigger problems…I’m their new master, and they’ll only get fed when they start taking orders.”**

“Or I could take them back to their rightful owner.” Percy suggested lightly.

**The nerve! Martha shrieked. You tell that ginger jerk—**

“You tell him, Martha.” Hermes nodded approvingly.

“I like those snakes.” Thalia chuckled.

“They certainly have character.” Jason agreed.

**“Hold on,” Annabeth interrupted. “Cacus, the snakes will never obey you…Just give it back and we’ll pretend this never happened.”**

“That sounds like a great idea, so he’ll never go for it.” Piper sighed.

**“Great idea,” I said…disturbing about “laser mode.” I really didn’t want Cacus figuring out that feature.**

“That would be bad.” Connor winced.

“Very bad.” Chris agreed.

**Finally the giant growled in frustration…Half a dozen granite cows broke to pieces.**

“That’s not good.” Percy grimaced.

“Let’s hope that was just an accident and he doesn’t know how to do it again.” Annabeth muttered.

**“Now, that’s interesting!” Cacus beamed…I will be the lord of traveling salesmen!”**

“He thinks so small.” Hermes complained.

**“That,” I said, “is truly evil.”…Now let’s see how I can kill you with it.”**

“What?” Reyna frowned.

“Does that mean it wasn’t his idea to steal it?” Chris wondered.

“It sounds that way.” Clarisse nodded. “But who would want the staff?”

“Plenty of monsters would love to have a godly item of power.” Ares pointed out.

“True but who would make a deal with him for it?” Annabeth wanted to know. “That’s a more intelligent move that most monster could come up with.”

“Hopefully we can trick him into telling us.” Percy said.

**“Wait!” Annabeth said. “You mean it wasn’t your idea…she announced. “‘Eighty-five percent off piano lessons.’”**

Everybody laughed.

“Go George and Martha.” Connor cheered.

“Your snakes have a sense of humour.” Dionysus told Hermes, looking mildly amused.

**“Gah!” Cacus glared at the snakes and breathed a fiery warning shot over their heads. “Obey me!”**

“Leave them alone.” Hermes growled. He knew they hated fire.

**George and Martha squirmed in alarm…When you defeated Kronos, did you think you eliminated all the enemies of the gods?**

“No. It will take more than that.” Apollo sighed.

“We have quite a few enemies.” Ares added but he was grinning like this fact excited him.

“I wonder why.” Percy muttered sarcastically.

**You only delayed the fall of Olympus for a little while longer…that’s only the first bit of chaos my friends have planned.”**

“Friends? As in more than one?” Katie groaned.

“That’s just what we need. Another group that want to destroy Olympus.” Percy sighed. “I wonder if the prophecy is starting already. I mean, surely we get more than a single month off between Great prophecies?”

“Well, whoever his friends are, they are clever.” Athena said reluctantly. “It is more important than ever that you return Hermes’ staff.”

**“Your friends?” Annabeth asked…I also knew I couldn’t leave George and Martha at his mercy.**

Hermes smiled at that.

**Besides, the world had enough traveling salesmen…staff and a collection of knockoff Rolexes.**

“You’re a good kid.” Triton said with a fond smile.

**I looked at Annabeth. “Time to fight?”…Wait, you just charged in without a plan?**

“I might have done up until a few days ago. Now, I’m sadly used to it.” Poseidon sighed unhappily.

“There isn’t exactly much time to make a plan there.” Percy defended himself.

**But Annabeth and I had been fighting together for years…Hmm…that sounded wrong. Oh, well.**

A few people snickered.

“Well, you’ve had enough practice at both versions of fighting with Annabeth.” Grover pointed out.

**Annabeth veered to the giant’s left. I charged him head-on…My next startling discovery: flaming breath is hot.**

“Really? I would never have guessed.” Beckendorf said sarcastically.

“Then it’s a good thing I’m here to reveal such things to you.” Percy smirked. Beckendorf rolled his eyes.

**I managed to leap to one side, but I could feel my arms…I rolled through the mud to douse the flames and knocked over a rack of women’s coats.**

“Yuck.” Percy grimaced.

“Well, it was either that or stay on fire.” Thalia pointed out.

“Both are sucky option.” Silena said, wrinkling her nose.

**The giant roared. “Look what you’ve done! Those are genuine fake Prada!”**

“How can they be genuine and fake?” Jason frowned.

“They can’t.” Piper told him, resisting the urge to face palm.

**Annabeth used the distraction to strike…usually a nice soft spot on monsters.**

“Go Annabeth.” Connor cheered.

“A good spot to hit.” Ares nodded approvingly.

**She leaped away as Cacus swung the caduceus, barely missing her.**

Athena inhaled sharply.

**The silver tip slammed into the bulldozer and the entire machine turned to stone.**

“Nope, it seems he’s definitely worked out that feature.” Dakota said unhappily.

“Well, it does seem quite simple. Hit stuff with the tip and it turns stuff to stone.” Will pointed out.

“Maybe you should make it so you need to use a password to access the special features or something.” Percy suggested.

“Hmmm. Not a bad idea.” Hermes mused.

**“I’ll kill you!” Cacus stumbled, golden ichor pouring…You’d think that would be enough, right? But no.**

“No. Something that big will require a shot to the heart most likely. Or something very powerful.” Ares stated.

“If you can get the staff maybe you could turn him to stone.” Connor suggested.

“That would be one way to deal with him.” Hermes nodded.

“I wanna hear about this laser mode.” Chris said.

**Cacus bellowed in pain. He turned with surprising speed…crashed into a pile of broken stone cows.**

Poseidon growled in annoyance while Apollo gripped Percy’s hand and resisted the urge to check him for any injuries.

**My vision blurred. Annabeth yelled, “Percy!” but her voice sounded as though it were underwater.**

Apollo grew more worried. Percy might have a concussion and should be checked out. They probably didn’t even have any nectar or ambrosia with them.

**Move! Martha’s voice spoke in my mind. He’s about to strike!**

“Thank us for Martha.” Poseidon breathed.

**Roll left! George said, which was one of the more helpful suggestions he’d ever made.**

“And George.” Apollo added.

“Handy snakes.” Hades agreed.

“I definitely owe them a few rats.” Percy noted to himself.

**I rolled to the left as the caduceus smashed into the pile of stone where I’d been lying.**

Everyone winced.

**I heard a CLANG! And the giant screamed, “Gah!”…Annabeth had just smacked her shield across the giant’s backside.**

“Nice.” Thalia laughed.

“A dagger might have worked better.” Clarisse grumbled.

**Being an expert at school expulsion, I’d gotten kicked out of several military academies where they still believed paddling was good for the soul.**

“What?” Poseidon yelped furiously.

“It’s pretty common in military schools.” Nico said, though he didn’t look happy about it. “They allowed it at Westover.”

“Were you ever punished in such a manner?” Hades asked in a low, angry voice.

“No. Neither was Bianca but we knew a couple of kids who were.”

“What about you?” Apollo asked Percy through gritted teeth. This had been left out of his childhood recollection the other evening.

“A couple of times.” Percy muttered.

“Only a couple?” Poseidon raised an eyebrow. He had a fair idea how much trouble Percy had gotten in at school. He would be amazed if he had only been spanked a couple of times.

“You know. A few.” Percy shrugged, not wanting to talk about his anymore. Poseidon grimaced. He wanted to smite anyone who had dared lay a hand on his son. Especially considering Percy would have been living with that pathetic excuse for a human at the same time.

Thankfully, Athena seemed to take pity on him and continued reading before they could press anymore.

**I had a fair idea how it felt to get spanked with a large flat surface, and my rump clenched in sympathy.**

Apollo and Poseidon both scowled angrily.

**Cacus staggered, but before Annabeth could discipline…He crumpled the Celestial bronze like paper and tossed it over his shoulder.**

“No.” Beckendorf cried. “Not the shield. That took forever to make.”

“That’s not good.” Annabeth grimaced.

“I guess I’d better make a spare then.” Beckendorf sighed.

**So much for that magic item…It became a cell phone and rang to the tune of “Macarena.”**

A few people burst out laughing.

“Those snakes are great.” Apollo snickered.

**George and Martha, now the size of earthworms…We danced to this at our wedding, Martha said. Remember, dear?**

“Er…how exactly do snakes dance?” Leo wanted to know.

**“Stupid snakes!” Cacus shook the cell phone violently…“Or I’ll turn you two into a fake Gucci handbag!”**

“Don’t you touch them.” Hermes growled.

**Annabeth ran to my side. Together we backed up…My ears were ringing. Her voice still sounded like she was underwater.**

“You need some nectar or ambrosia.” Will noted.

“And to get checked out for a concussion.” Apollo added anxiously. “It’s not good you can still hear the ringing.”

“Well, I don’t think this guy is going to wait around for me to go and find a healer.” Percy shrugged. “It’ll have to wait.”

**Wait…under water…Being the son of the sea god, I could sometimes control water. I wondered…**

“You can always control water.” Travis said.

“Not always.” Percy corrected. “Just most of the time.”

**“I don’t like you!” Cacus yelled.**

“The feeling is entirely mutual.” Percy muttered.

**He stalked toward us, smoke pouring from his nostrils…and I summoned it all into the broken pipes.**

“This is going to be disgusting, isn’t it?” Annabeth grimaced.

“Probably.” Triton nodded. “I think most of it is going to be sewage water. And even if it came directly from one of the rivers, those aren’t pleasant either.”

“Wonderful.” She groaned.

**Cacus towered over us, his mouth glowing like a furnace…sewer system of Manhattan to explode, do not stand underneath it.**

“At least you can keep yourself dry.” Annabeth pointed out.

“Yeah but that’s not going to stop the smell.” Percy wrinkled his nose.

“Also, that’s good advice but you didn’t have that many options.” Apollo pointed out.

**The whole cavern rumbled as a thousand water pipes burst…edge of the torrent, carrying Annabeth with me.**

“I’m going to kill you.” She said, looking ill.

**“What are you—?” She made a strangling sound. “Ahhh!”…except at a ninety-degree angle and with no slide—just water.**

“Nice work.” Triton nodded.

**Far below I heard Cacus bellowing as millions, maybe even thousands of filthy gallons of water slammed into him.**

“Millions, maybe even thousands? You do realize millions is _more_ than thousands?” Leo pointed out.

Percy just shrugged.

“Whatever, that is not going to help you get my Caduceus back.” Hermes added.

**Meanwhile Annabeth alternately shouted, gagged, hit me, called me endearing pet names like “Idiot! Stupid—dirty—moron—” and topped it all off with “Kill you!”**

“To be fair, you did just jump into a large amount of sewer water. I don’t blame her for being a little unhappy.” Connor pointed out fairly.

**Finally we shot out of the ground atop a disgusting geyser…Annabeth had old cotton balls stuck in her hair and a wet candy wrapper plastered to her face.**

“Oh, that’s gross.” Silena wrinkled her nose in horror.

“I hate you.” Annabeth told Percy, looking disgusted. Even Percy didn’t look exactly thrilled.

“At least we’re alive, if very grossed out.” He shrugged.

**“That,” she said, “was horrible!”…Tartarus the way most defeated monsters do, and we could go collect the caduceus.**

“No. It will take more than that.” Hephaestus said.

**That sounded reasonable enough…Gag me, said George. Even for me that was disgusting, and I eat rats.**

“You know it’s bad if George thinks it’s disgusting.” Hermes grimaced.

**Incoming! Martha warned. Oh, no! I think the giant has figured out…carving a trench up the side of a glass office building, melting windows and vaporizing concrete.**

“I’m guessing that’s laser mode.” Travis winced.

“Yep.” Hermes nodded.

“So definitely not good he’s work out how to do that.” Beckendorf cringed.

“I blame Percy’s luck.” Apollo muttered, gripping his boyfriend’s hand tightly.

**The giant climbed from the pit, his velour housecoat steaming, and his face spattered with slime.**

“And I thought he couldn’t look any worse.” Aphrodite looked disgusted.

**He did not look happy. In his hands, the caduceus now resembled a bazooka with snakes wrapped around the barrel and a glowing blue muzzle.**

“I suggest you start running.” Poseidon stated worriedly.

“Good idea.” Hermes nodded.

**“Okay,” Annabeth said faintly. “Um, what is that?”…Packing District now, since so many of you had to move out.**

“Those poor mortals.” Hestia frowned.

**Still, the real surprise is that we didn’t do more damage…Chunks of asphalt rained down like confetti.**

“You really need to invent a password to use that thing.” Percy yelped. This monster was destroying his city.

“I’ll get right on that.” Hermes agreed. Personally, he hoped his Caduceus never gets stolen this time around, but it would be better to be safe than sorry.

**Behind us, Cacus yelled, “You ruined my fake Rolexes! They aren’t waterproof, you know! For that, you die!”**

“Really? That’s his biggest issue with what just happened? His watches are not waterproof?” Leo wondered.

“He’s a giant who lives in underground caves. He’s probably used to nasty things like sewage water.” Beckendorf pointed out.

“Or worse.” Nico added.

“Worse?” Will looked astonished. “Actually, I don’t want to know. This is the giant who also ate that meat earlier.”

“Don’t remind me.” Piper complained, feeling nauseated all over again.

**We kept running. My hope was to get this monster away…“If we can get him off street level—”**

“Not the poor park.” Grover groaned.

“It’s better than him being in the middle of a packed street.” Percy looked at his friend apologetically.

**BOOM! The laser cut through a nearby food truck. The vendor dove out his service window with a fistful of shish kebabs.**

“Yeah, ok. You’ve got a good point.” Grover nodded.

**Annabeth and I sprinted for the park stairs…even think Annabeth and I were the problem. You just never knew.**

“They probably would.” Poseidon grimaced.

“With your luck they’d think you are the problem and Annabeth is an innocent bystander.” Rachel laughed.

“He would deserve it after taking me through all that sewage.” Annabeth grumbled.

**We climbed up to the park. I tried to get my bearings…The park’s flower beds were bursting with color.**

“And he’s probably about to destroy them with his stupid laser.” Grover complained.

  
“My laser is not stupid.” Hermes frowned.

“Right now it might kill Percy, and Annabeth, so I’d call it stupid.” Apollo told him matter of factly.

**The High Line was empty, though—maybe because it was a workday, or maybe because the visitors were smart and ran when they heard the explosions.**

“That’s something at least.” Michael muttered.

**Somewhere below us, Cacus was roaring, cursing, and offering panicked mortals deep discounts on slightly damp Rolexes.**

“Well he is certainly dedicated to his sales.” Chris commented.

**I figured we only had a few seconds before he found us…I’d never actually seen a child of Demeter do that, but it would be cool.**

“I’m not sure about turning flowers into ninja throwing stars.” Katie laughed. “But we could certainly entangle him in plants.”

“That would be awesome though.” Travis mused. “Maybe you should try.”

“You don’t want me doing that.” She smirked at him. He gulped and nodded his agreement.

**I looked at Annabeth. “Your turn for a brilliant idea.”…The way her Camp Half-Blood beads rested against her throat—Okay, sorry. Got a little distracted.**

Apollo gritted in teeth in annoyance while Connor’s eyes slid to the beads that were still around Annabeth’s neck.

Percy turned sideways slightly and leaned back against Apollo’s chest to help calm him down.

Athena glared at Percy, glad they were definitely not together in this moment or she would have been tempted to smite him. Powers or not.

**She pointed. “There!”…I was trying to swallow a quarter. “No,” I said. “Too dangerous.”**

“If Percy is saying that then it must be dangerous.” Rachel noted.

  
“Or he is being overprotective.” Annabeth shrugged.

**Annabeth raised her eyebrow. “Percy, you know I…head architect for redesigning the palace of the gods on Mount Olympus in her spare time.**

Annabeth beamed with pride at that. She really hoped that job came true in the end.

**“But can you operate it?” I asked…Keep him occupied while I grab him.”**

“Sounds like Percy got the dangerous job.” Triton muttered.

“Doesn’t he always.” Poseidon grumbled.

**“And then what?”…“Would you like fries and a drink, maybe?”**

A few people laughed while Annabeth glared at Percy.

**“Shut up, Percy.”…His red velour robe was in tatters. He’d lost his slippers.**

“I’m sure that is no great loss.” Piper muttered.

**His ginger hair was plastered to his head like a greasy shower cap…We’re trying, dear! Martha said.**

“They’d best hurry up.” Apollo grimaced.

“I’m sure they are doing the best they can.” Hermes told him huffily.

**My stomach hurts, George said. I think he bruised my tummy.**

”Poor George.” Percy frowned.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. George is a bit of a hypochondriac.” Dionysus said dismissively. Hermes glared at his half brother.

**I backed up slowly down the dead end tracks…Oh, and Hermes is a way better salesman than you.”**

Everybody laughed at that.

**“Gah!” Cacus lowered the caduceus laser…I probably should’ve thought of that sooner.**

“Ya think?” Apollo let out a strangled yelp.

“It’s Annabeth.” Thalia shrugged. “She’ll manage to think of something.”

“Well she had better hurry.” Rachel said anxiously.

**Cacus pulled the trigger, and suddenly the caduceus changed form…but the only thing that came out was a paper receipt.**

“Yes!” Hermes cheered. “Go George and Martha.”

“Definitely need some rats.” Percy muttered. Apollo and his dad were looking more freaked out by the second. Thankfully this was a brief reprieve.

**Oh, yeah! George yelled in my mind. One for the snakes!...I launched myself forward, snatched the staff, and rolled under the giant’s legs.**

“Yes.” All the Hermes kids cheered.

**When I got to my feet, we’d changed positions…Unfortunately, the crane still wasn’t moving. And Cacus still wanted to kill me.**

“Just wonderful.” Apollo groaned.

“Percy has the staff. If he can get George and Martha to change it back to laser mode that should be powerful enough to kill Cacus.” Thalia suggested.

“Yeah. That would be a deserved end.” Hermes nodded. He wouldn’t even complain about a mortal using his staff. It was better than the giant and it was to get revenge on the one who had stolen his staff in the first place.

**“You put out my fire with that cursed sewage,” he growled. “Now you steal my staff.”**

“It’s not _his_ staff.” Hermes spluttered indignantly.

**“Which you wrongfully stole,” I said…And reflected in one of those mirrors were Annabeth’s gray eyes.**

“About time.” Triton muttered.

**The claw opened and began to drop…“Her name is Annabeth,” I said. “And she’s one of a kind.”**

Annabeth smiled.

**The claw dropped, smacking Cacus on the head…but only managed to cough up some mud.**

Everybody snickered.

“The problem is what are you going to do with him now he’s in the grabber?” Will asked.

“Hold him in one place while we stab him in the heart?” Percy suggested.

“I think he’s a bit high up for that. You might need to risk putting him pretty close to the ground.” Michael pointed out.

“Given how high Percy can jump when he wants to, maybe not _that_ low.” Nico muttered.

**Annabeth swung the crane arm back and forth…“Do you think you could manage laser mode just once more for me?”**

“Nice.” Apollo smirked.

**With pleasure, George said…giant disintegrated into a beautiful starburst.**

“Yes!” Everyone cheered.

“Nice shot.” Apollo said approvingly.

All of the Hermes kids felt another flash of jealousy. Percy had gotten to use their dad’s godly symbol of power and in laser mode. They would give anything to have a go at that, even if it meant facing an ugly giant dude.

“Good riddance.” Athena sniffed.

**That, George said, was excellent. May I have a rat now?...“You’ve earned it,” I said.**

“They certainly have.” Hermes agreed.

**“But first we’d better check on Annabeth.”…romantic kiss when you’re both drenched in muck, but we gave it our best shot.**

“You know, that’s one moment, I’m not going to try and best.” Apollo pulled a disgusted face.

“Good to know. I’d kill you if you tried.” Percy told him.

**When I finally came up for air, I said, “Rats.”…I can tell you that George and Martha helped out with the vermin problem.**

“You rescued my staff and fed my snakes. Thanks.” Hermes smiled gratefully at the two of them.

“Well the snakes did help save our lives. I think some rats are the least we could do for them.” Percy shrugged. “And I’ve been promising to bring them some rats for a while.”

**As we traveled north, they curled around the caduceus…Hermes sighed with relief. “Thank you, Percy.”**

“Excuse me?” Athena glared at Hermes. “My daughter played a rather important part in saving your staff.”

“Yeah.” Hermes sighed. “Sorry, Annabeth. And thanks for the help.”

“You’re welcome.” She said simply.

**Annabeth cleared her throat…“That’s ironic, considering Zeus has been threatening…”**

“What foolishness is our brother planning now?” Poseidon let out a long suffering sigh.

“How do you know it’s foolishness?” Zeus demanded.

“Because we know you.” Hades said dryly.

“Because you only threaten to do things when you’re annoyed. And I’m certain Percy’s refusal of godhood and his wish will have upset your greatly. So now you’re going to lash out and do something foolish.” Poseidon pointed out.

“It would seem our brother has not learnt anything from the past four years.” Demeter rolled her eyes.

“You’d best hope that whatever you threaten to do does not cause issues like you did in these books, brother. The last time you chose to ignore a problem, father almost destroyed us.” Poseidon scowled at Zeus who scowled right back.

**His voice trailed off…They tend to turn you into small fuzzy mammals or potted plants.**

“At least you learnt that eventually.” Apollo chuckled.

**“Okay…” I said. “Any idea what Cacus meant about other enemies…Hermes obviously wasn’t going to enlighten us now.**

“Or probably ever.” Percy muttered bitterly.

“At least not until it’s too late.” Nico agreed unhappily.

**The god managed a smile. “At any rate, well done…I said. “Surely you didn’t forget.”**

A few people laughed.

**She opened her mouth and closed it again…Manhattan sewage is not a look you can pull off.**

“That’s not a look anybody can pull of.” Silena said, wrinkling her nose.

“Yeah. New clothes would be nice.” Percy nodded. “Thanks.” He added, looking at Hermes.

“You did do my quite a large favour.”

**Then the rest should be easy. God of travel, at your service.”…“I may not see you for a while, Percy,” Hermes warned. “But…well, enjoy tonight.”**

“Is that because you have no reason to visit Percy or because of the foolishness my brother is planning?” Poseidon wanted to know.

“I have no idea.” Hermes shrugged.

“But I’m betting on the second option.” Hades muttered darkly.

**He made that sound so ominous, I wondered again…lights of Paris and the boats on the River Seine. The Eiffel Tower glowed in the distance.**

“Oh gods.” Annabeth breathed. “You got Hermes to take us to dinner in _Paris_?”

“It seems so.” Percy grinned, looking quite proud of himself. Apollo was scowling. Immediately he began planning dates in various cities around the world.

**I was wearing a suit.**

“Woah. I would love to see that.” Silena squealed. “You would look amazing.” Percy blushed.

“I definitely want to see that, too.” Apollo whispered to him.

“Don’t get your hopes up. I hate suits.” Percy muttered back.

“For me?” Apollo sent him a pleading look and Percy sighed.

“I’ll think about it.” Apollo grinned. He could work with that. And snap Percy into a suit at some point.

**I hope someone got a picture, because I don’t wear suits…that showed off her long blond hair and her slim athletic figure.**

Annabeth’s eyebrows rose while Connor wished he could have seen that.

**Her camp necklace had been replaced by…and a Coke with ice for me (because I’m a barbarian).**

“I don’t blame you.” Travis said. “Coke is the best.”

“Agreed.” Nico nodded.

“It’s terrible for you.” Will stated. Nico just shrugged.

**We dined on a bunch of stuff I couldn’t even pronounce…I said. “And you thought I forgot.”**

“Good try.” Thalia laughed “But you did forget.”

“Otherwise you wouldn’t have needed Hermes to organize this.” Rachel added.

“To be fair, it is better than anything I could organize myself.” Percy shrugged.

“And it’s a pretty impressive save.” Silena pointed out.

**“You did forget, Seaweed Brain.”…She reached across the table and took my hand.**

Apollo’s hand flexed around Percy’s.

**Her expression turned serious. “Any idea why Hermes acted so nervous? I got the feeling something bad was happening on Olympus.”**

“You’d probably know best as Olympus’ architect. I imagine you go there more than me.” Percy shrugged.

**I shook my head. I may not see you for a while…“And Percy…feel free to start planning our two-month anniversary.”**

“I’m not going to be able to top a trip to Paris.” Percy complained.

“Good thing you won’t need to then.” Annabeth said softly. He shot her a grateful smile and Apollo felt himself relax a little.

**“Oh, gods. ” I felt panicky at the thought, but also really good…be with me next month, then that was good enough for me.**

And Apollo’s scowl was back.

“Hey, I’m happy with you.” Percy told him in a quiet voice. “You really don’t need to be so jealous.”

“Oh, I do.” Apollo assured him. Percy rolled his eyes. “But I shall endeavour to make sure you remain very happy with me.”

**“How about we go for that walk?” I pulled out…“I want to explore Paris with a beautiful girl.”**

“Thanks, Hermes.” Percy smiled.

“You’re welcome.” Hermes grinned back.

“Done.” Athena announced. “Finally. That was far too long.”

“I guess that makes it my turn.” Hephaestus grumbled.


	2. Jason I

“What?” Percy exclaimed as everyone turned to look at Jason.

“It would appear there is no chapter title as in the previous books.” Hephaestus stated. “Just a name.”

“Aww, I loved those titles.” Leo complained.

“Does that mean this book is from my point of view?” Jason asked anxiously.

“It would seem so.” Hephaestus told him, scanning the first couple of sentences.

“Awesome! It’s someone else’s turn.” Percy grinned happily. Jason looked a lot more unhappy about this turn of events. Poseidon squeezed his son’s shoulders, hoping this meant his son was not going to be involved. Apollo was also rather cheerful at this news and laced his fingers with Percy’s as Hephaestus began reading.

**Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day**

“What? You got electrocuted? Who would be stupid enough to electrocute a son of Zeus? But surely that wouldn’t hurt you too much, you’re my brother after all.” Thalia rambled.

“Yeah. I guess this is about the quest we just went on.” Jason said, indicating himself, Piper and Leo. “I could be wrong, but it seems the only time I can think of where I’ve been electrocuted that would be relevant.”

“How many times _have_ you been electrocuted?” Thalia demanded.

“Not sure.” Jason shrugged. “A few.”

“Well, at least I get to here about my little brother’s adventures.” Thalia grinned eagerly.

**He woke in the backseat of a school bus, not sure where he was, holding hands with a girl he didn't know.**

Piper grimaced. She still hated that their relationship was based on her fake memories. Although at least Jason didn’t have fake memories. He had liked her because of her. Or maybe he had just felt guilty because she thought he should be her boyfriend, so he felt like he had to? That thought made her feel cold all over. Jason shot her a questioning look but she shook her head. She would ask him later, in private.

**That wasn't necessarily the rotten part…He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to think.**

“Why don’t you know where you are or who you’re holding hands with?” Thalia wanted to know.

“You’ll find out.” Jason said grimly. He expected Hera was going to be in some hot water when it was discovered what she had done and he was kind of looking forward to it if he was honest.

**A few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of him…fifteen? Sixteen? Okay, that was scary. He didn't know his own age.**

“How is that even possible?” Katie frowned.

“His memories were completely gone.” Piper said with a slight scowl.

“That would take some serious power.” Silena said.

“Why would someone take Jason’s memories and stick him on a random bus full of people?” Will wanted to know.

“If you let Hephaestus read then maybe you will find out.” Athena snapped. Everyone went quiet.

**The bus rumbled along a bumpy road…trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn't work.**

Now everyone turned to look at Piper.

“Yeah. That’s me.” She sighed.

“Why would you want to avoid attracting attention?” Drew asked curiously.

“I don’t like being the center of attention.” Piper said shortly. Aphrodite looked slightly horrified by this. Jason squeezed her hand and she smiled at him.

**She was seriously pretty.**

Piper blushed.

“You are.” Silena agreed, looking at her critically. “But I’d love to do something to sort your hair out.”

“Maybe some other time.” Piper muttered, not really wanting anyone to mess with her hair. She liked it as it was.

**Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope-brown…His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair,**

“I wonder which Satyr that is.” Percy said.

“I think they already mentioned knowing Gleeson, so I’m going to guess it’s him.” Annabeth pointed out.

“Well, at least whoever did this to Jason put him where a Satyr can protect him.” Michael said.

“That’s something at least.” Thalia agreed.

**so you could just see his beady eyes…He would've looked pretty scary if he hadn't been five feet zero.**

“I’ve changed my mind. He’s plenty scary even if he’s short.” Jason muttered.

“Yeah.” Annabeth laughed. “Gleeson can be a little enthusiastic.”

“You don’t say.” Leo said sarcastically.

**When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called…He was sure the coach knew he didn't belong there.**

“If nobody else noticed anything weird, I guess the Mist has been used.” Silena said.

“And Satyrs can see through the Mist.” Beckendorf added. “They have to be able to for their job.”

**He was going to call Jason out, demand to know what he was doing…I will personally send you back to campus the hard way."**

Grover grimaced while Chiron shook his head. Gleeson Hedge might have been good at his job but maybe it was time to retire him. He scared most of the new campers, except the Ares kids he found, like Clarisse. They all loved him.

**He picked up a baseball bat and made like he was hitting a homer…This is the Wilderness School. 'Where kids are the animals.'"**

“What?” Aphrodite looked horrified that her daughter was in such a place.

“That sounds terrible.” Percy frowned. “And I’ve been to some bad school.”

“That wasn’t actually the school motto.” Piper explained. “Just our little joke.”

“But it summed up the school pretty well.” Leo put in. “It’s where all the kids go when their parents run out of schools that will take them.”

**She said it like it was a joke they'd shared before…We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW."**

“You stole a BMW?” Silena looked at her sister, eyebrow raised. Piper hadn’t struck her as the kleptomaniac type.

“I didn’t steal it. I just asked the guy to give it to me and he did.”

“Oh, you have charm speak.” Aphrodite looked delighted. Silena also looked pleased for Piper but Drew just scowled.

“Do you?” Piper asked curiously.

  
“Yes, but it’s not very strong.” Silena admitted. “I have to focus pretty hard to use it.”

“Why did you talk someone into giving you a BMW anyway?” Frank asked. Piper sighed.

“My dad’s always busy and I wanted to get his attention.” She admitted with a grimace. “And it was taking more and more for him to actually bother.” A few demigods nodded. They could understand that.

**The girl blushed. "I didn't steal that car, Leo!"…Leo looked like a Latino Santa's elf,**

“Gee, thanks Jason.” He grumbled while everyone else burst out laughing.

“That’s a pretty accurate description.” Beckendorf teased his brother.

“It is not.” He protested.

“Yeah. It kinda is.” Percy grinned. Leo glared at him.

**with curly black hair, pointy ears, a cheerful, babyish face…this guy should not be trusted around matches or sharp objects.**

Leo shrugged at that. It was probably true.

**His long, nimble fingers wouldn't stop moving-drumming…enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo.**

“Leo is pretty hyper even for a demigod.” Piper stated.

“We’ve noticed.” Beckendorf laughed.

**"Anyway," Leo said, "I hope you've got your worksheet, 'cause I used mine for spit wads days ago.**

“Of course you did.” Annabeth sighed.

**Why are you looking at me like that?...but his voice came out like Darth Vader's.**

Everybody laughed.

“Did you do that?” Percy asked Leo, grinning.

“Yeah. It was pretty easy.” Leo admitted, returning the grin. Hephaestus grunted his approval. He may not have much to do with pranks, but he could appreciate his son’s work.

“Good job.” Connor chuckled.

“A very nice prank.” Travis agreed. Leo preened.

**The kids cracked up. The coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!"**

There was more laughter.

**The kids howled, and the coach slammed down the megaphone…Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "I'm a special boy."**

“That you are.” Piper told him fondly.

**"Guys, seriously," Jason pleaded. "What am I doing here?...for that shaving cream on the Jell-O thing, aren't you?"**

“Shaving cream on Jell-O? I love it.” Connor burst out laughing once more.

“We’ll have to try that out sometime. Maybe when we get some new, unsuspecting campers.” Travis smirked.

**Jason stared at him blankly…"Did you hit your head or something? You really don't know who we are?"**

“So, not only did this person take Jason’s memories and dump him on a bus, but they also gave everyone else fake memories of Jason?” Nico frowned.

“Well, it wouldn’t work if she dumped him in a group of people and a group of mortals saw him appear from nowhere. The Mist would intervene.” Silena guessed.

**Jason shrugged helplessly. "It's worse than that. I don't know who I am."…helpful tone that made Jason think this was not going to be helpful.**

Leo put on a faux offended look.

“I’m always helpful.” He protested.

“No. You’re always looking for an opportunity to prank people.” Piper corrected.

“A demigod after our own hearts.” Travis grinned. He and Connor already knew Leo was a great pranker, but it was even better to hear about some of the pranks he had pulled before he had joined forces with them.

**"We go to the 'Wilderness School'"-Leo made air quotes…who keeps order with a baseball bat. Is it all coming back to you now?"**

“Wow. That sounds even worse than I originally thought.” Percy grimaced. Hephaestus and Aphrodite both looked worried about why their children would be in such a place.

**"No." Jason glanced apprehensively at the other kids…I say and give me your dessert and do my chores-"**

“He’s not going to fall for that.” Thalia rolled her eyes.

“It was worth a shot.” Leo shrugged.

**"Leo!" Piper snapped…the last few weeks-"**

“Weeks?” Annabeth frowned. “Surely the Mist wouldn’t bother to create memories reaching back that far. It could have just made it so Jason started the day before or something.”

“Well, when Percy vaporized the Fury posing as his math teacher, the Mist made it so that everyone thought the new teacher had been there for ages.” Grover pointed out.

“True but Chiron helped with that. The Mist normally goes for the simplest option. If everyone had weeks’ worth of fake memories of Jason, then someone wanted it that way.” Silena stated.

Piper glared at the floor so she wouldn’t glare at Hera. She really hated the goddess for giving her fake memories of Jason dating her, when she could have only just met him.

**"Leo, stop it!" Piper's face turned red…He'd try to fix Jason by whacking him upside the head."**

“True.” Grover grimaced.

“That sounds like Hedge.” Michael laughed.

**The coach was at the front of the group, barking orders…"Don't talk to these bottom-feeders. You're my partner, remember?"**

Jason, Piper and Leo all scowled.

“Well doesn’t that guy sound delightful.” Percy glared at the book. He sounded like any high school bully that he despised.

**The new guy had dark hair cut Superman style…not stare directly at teeth. permanent blindness may occur.**

“Sounds like your teeth.” Percy commented to Apollo who smirked at him.

**He wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey, Western jeans and boots, and he smiled like he was God's gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere. Jason hated him instantly.**

“Don’t blame you.” Beckendorf muttered.

“I think we all hate him too.” Percy agreed.

**"Go away, Dylan," Piper grumbled. "I didn't ask to work with you."…I can't figure out how! You want to date me instead? You're so lucky!'"**

Everyone chuckled again.

**"Leo," Jason said, "you're weird."**

“Yep. But the best kind of weird.” Chris grinned.

“Definitely.” Travis nodded.

**"Yeah, you tell me that a lot." Leo grinned…his life must be pretty messed up; but he followed Leo into the museum.**

Leo fought to hide a cringe. That hurt. He knew this Jason was different to the Jason in his fake memories, but it didn’t stop the sting. They were still supposed to be best friends. But then, he mostly felt like a third wheel anyway these days. At least fake Jason had made some time for him as well as his relationship with Piper.

“Leo…” Jason frowned. “I didn’t…”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Leo waved away what Jason was about to say. He didn’t want to hear fake platitudes. They were reading Jason’s thoughts; he obviously had meant it at the time.

Beckendorf slung an arm around his brother’s shoulders in support.

**They walked through the building, stopping here…like he had to keep his hands busy at all times.**

“It’s a common son of Hephaestus thing.” Beckendorf explained.

“You’re not like that.” Will noticed.

“I used to be. I learnt to control it.” Beckendorf admitted.

“You can control it?” Leo asked, interestedly.

“I’ll show you some techniques that can help.” He promised.

**Jason was too distracted to pay much attention to the exhibits…Do you get in free if you do a rain dance?"**

Everyone glared at the book, angry on Piper’s behalf.

**The other girls laughed. Even Piper's so-called partner…so that she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction.**

Athena huffed while everyone else laughed.

**"Oh, sorry! Was your mom in this tribe? Oh, that's right. You never knew your mom."**

Aphrodite scowled at the book. Jason squeezed Piper’s hand once more.

“Urgh, it’s like having serval Nancy Bobofits.” Percy grimaced. “And I thought one was more than enough.”

“One _is_ more than enough.” Grover stated.

**Piper charged her, but before a fight could start…or even who he was, but he knew he hated mean kids.**

Piper smiled at Jason. “I was used to it.” She told him.

“That doesn’t make it right.” He frowned.

**Leo caught his arm. "Be cool. Piper doesn't like us…they'd be all bowing down to her and screaming, 'We're not worthy!'"**

“Why? Who is your dad?” Katie asked. Piper sighed. Sadly, she figured that they would find out during this adventure anyway.

“Tristan McClean.” She admitted.

“No way.” Drew’s mouth dropped open.

“Wow.” Silena whistled. “That’s so cool.” It also explained why Piper had looked so uncomfortable in the conversation about favourite celebrities the other day.

“He’s hot.” Rachel burst out. “Sorry.” She winced as Piper grimaced. “I love his work though.” Piper sent a look towards Hephaestus, begging him to continue reading.

**"Why? What about her dad?"…over the edge, as that would cause me extra paperwork."**

“Really, Gleeson?” Grover groaned. Most other people were snickering.

**The coach opened the doors, and they all stepped outside…so you could see right through it.**

“That sounds amazing.” Annabeth said dreamily.

“No it doesn’t.” Thalia grimaced.

**"Man," Leo said. "That's pretty wicked."…Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor.**

Thalia shuddered.

**Banks of storm clouds had moved overhead while they'd…something important-something he should know about.**

“That sucks.” Percy grimaced.

“Yeah. It really does.” Jason agreed. He wondered if Percy had gone through exactly the same thing at Camp Jupiter.

**He also got the unmistakable feeling he was in danger…'Cause I should've brought my camera."**

“Really, Leo?” Thalia glared at him. Leo just shrugged.

**Jason grabbed the railing. He was shivering and sweaty…itself over the skywalk, but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear.**

“That sounds like monster activity.” Clarisse said.

**Jason had a bad feeling about that…circle of gold the size of a half-dollar, but thicker and more uneven.**

“That’s your weapon isn’t it?” Percy frowned, remembered Jason flipping a coin before their spar.

“Yeah. It can become either a sword or a lance.” Jason nodded.

**Stamped on one side was a picture of a battle-ax…"Come on," he said. "Dare you to spit over the edge."**

“Really?” Katie looked at him in mild disgust. Leo shrugged.

“I was bored.” He said by way of explanation.

**They didn't try very hard on the worksheet…halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiraled into the void.**

“Nice work.” Hephaestus told his son.

**"How'd you do that?" Jason asked…"You think you just appeared here this morning, and we've all got fake memories of you?"**

“Well, it sounds ridiculous but it’s what happened.” Annabeth said.

“Yeah, but I get why nobody would believe that.” Beckendorf pointed out. Most people nodded in agreement with that.

**A little voice in Jason's head said, That's exactly what I think…acted like he was a normal part of the class-except for Coach Hedge.**

“And the Satyrs strike again.” Dionysus sighed.

“True, but in this case, he’s not _trying_ to keep it secret from Jason like Grover was with Percy. He knows Jason wasn’t there that morning.” Chris pointed out.

“True.” Percy agreed. “And Grover has gotten a little better.”

“We still need to give him some lying lessons.” Travis stated.

**"Take the worksheet." Jason handed Leo the paper. "I'll be right back."…Some of the guys were dropping pennies over the side.**

“Mortals.” Artemis huffed in annoyance.

**About fifty feet away, Piper was trying to fill out her worksheet…like the coach had just asked if he'd made the thunderstorm.**

“Well, as a son of Zeus you probably could have.” Thalia stated.

“Yeah, but I didn’t know that then. And Coach Hedge surely can’t have known I was a son of Zeus.” Jason frowned.

“Probably not but he could probably tell you’re powerful. Big Three kids smell different.” Grover told him.

“Nobody would have expected a son of Zeus. If he was Greek, then there is no way we wouldn’t have known about him given the fact that his birth would have broken the oath too.” Annabeth said.

**Coach Hedge glared at him, his beady little eyes…I knew we had an infiltrator,**

“He thinks Jason is a monster?” Thalia asked indignantly.

“He would be able to smell that Jason isn’t a monster.” Grover assured her.

**but you don't smell like a monster. You smell like a half-blood. So-who are you, and where'd you come from?"**

“He’s already said he doesn’t know.” Thalia sighed in exasperation.

“Frustrating when no one listens, isn’t it?” Percy asked her, a little smugly. She glared at him.

**Most of what the coach said didn't make sense…They're coming to pick up a special package, but they wouldn't give me details.**

“How would we know about Jason?” Katie frowned.

“Unless one of us had a dream about him or something, maybe a message from the gods?” Beckendorf suggested.

“Maybe the gods know who took his memories.” Rachel said. Jason scowled slightly.

**I thought to myself, Fine. The two I'm watching are pretty powerful…trying to access information that should've been there but wasn't.**

“That sounds awful.” Reyna said. She couldn’t believe someone had taken Jason and wiped all of his memories and then dumped him off with the Greeks.

“It was.” Jason nodded.

**He stumbled, and Coach Hedge caught him…Hopefully nothing happens before-"**

“Why would he _say_ something like that.” Thalia groaned.

**Lightning crackled overhead. The wind picked up with a vengeance…"I thought you said this thing was stable!" Jason shouted over the wind.**

“It is usually.” Annabeth stated. “But monsters can do a lot of damage.”

“So can demigods.” Poseidon said, looking at his son fondly.

**"Under normal circumstances," Hedge agreed, "which these aren't. Come on!"**

“Done.” Hephaestus stated.

“Hey, as it’s not about me I’ll take a turn.” Percy offered. Hephaestus gave him the book and he opened it to the correct page.


	3. Piper III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just an FYI the characters only see the name as the title, not the number next to it. That's just so you guys can see which chapter it is.

“Oh great.” Piper grimaced. Leo’s eyes went wide. If that was changing points of view, then it was likely he would be next. And he did _not_ want people hearing his thoughts.

**After a morning of storm spirit’s, goat men, and flying boyfriends, Piper should’ve been losing her mind. Instead, all she felt was dread.**

“What? What do you mean flying boyfriends?” Thalia asked in confusion.

“And storm spirits.” Silena asked.

“It seems to have skipped a bit.” Jason frowned. He told them all about Dylan being the storm spirit and Leo’s fall down part of the cliff.

“Oh gods. Were you ok?” Beckendorf looked at his half-brother in concern. Hephaestus clenched his fists anxiously.

“Hedge saved me.” Leo nodded. “Just a bump on the head.”

Then Jason explained how Piper had been blasted off the skywalk. Aphrodite gasped and looked over at her daughter when he got to that part.

“It’s ok, mom.” Piper said. “Jason flew down and saved me.”

“Thank you.” Aphrodite looked at Jason gratefully.

“I couldn’t just let her die.” He shrugged. Then he finished explaining everything.

“Ok, so storm spirits attacked, and they are working for some new mistress?” Pollux frowned.

“What’s this about Percy being missing?” Apollo asked frantically. All of the Greeks felt really bad for Percy and angry at whoever was behind his disappearance.

“So, Jason arrives just as Percy goes missing? That’s got to be linked.” Beckendorf said thoughtfully.

“Percy disappeared three days before Jason arrived.” Piper corrected.

“Close enough.” Beckendorf shrugged.

“I don’t care if it’s linked. Someone has kidnapped my boyfriend.” Apollo growled. “And they are going to pay.”

“Dearly.” Poseidon agreed. Jason, Leo and Piper all smirked. They couldn’t wait to see what Apollo and Poseidon did to Hera when they found out it was her doing.

“Why is it always me?” Percy complained. “Seriously, I can’t take some time off? The Fates hate me.”

“Hey, as soon as we know who did this, dad and Apollo will stop them.” Triton told him. Percy wasn’t so sure. There were some things you couldn’t mess with and knowing his stupid luck, this was one of them. Now the joy at not having his thoughts read out for a bit was wearing off as he was still somehow involved. Although he had been suspecting that was going to be involved in the second prophecy because that’s how his life went but he had been hoping for a bit of a break. Instead, he had managed a break of one freaking chapter before he was in the thick of it once more. Still, he started reading just for something to do. He was grateful for whatever magic made him actually able to read this stupid book without much trouble.

**It’s starting, she thought. Just like the dream said…her in his arms and yet didn’t know who she was.**

Jason grimaced and Piper sighed.

**All semester she’d worked on a relationship…The last few weeks had been the best of her life.**

Jason felt horrible even if it wasn’t his fault.

“At least we’ve had time here. And when we get back we have months before the ship will be ready to leave.” Piper whispered to him. He nodded. That was something at least.

**And then, three nights ago, the dream had ruined…wiped his memory, and she was stuck in the worst “do over” of all time.**

Piper cursed whoever had decided to add this book to their reading list. It was going to bring up all her insecurities about her relationship with Jason. She was quite looking forward to Hera getting in trouble with the other gods for her part in Percy’s disappearance, even if they didn’t care about Jason. Hera had not needed to give her false memories of Jason as her boyfriend, that had been deliberate.

**She wanted to scream. Jason stood right next to her: those sky blue eyes, close-cropped blond hair, that cute little scar on his upper lip.**

“I guess trying to eat staplers is good for your appearance, if not your health.” Thalia snickered at her brother.

“I can’t believe you tried to eat a stapler.” Leo snickered.

**His face was kind and gentle, but always a little sad…Meanwhile, Leo was being annoying, as usual.**

Leo sighed. At least Piper hadn’t outright thought she must be messed up to be friends with him. But then, she was probably only friends with him because the fake memories made him Jason’s best friend. Maybe he should branch out and make a couple of new friends. The Stolls were pretty awesome. And Percy was way less scary than he had thought he would be and had a similar sense of humour to himself even if they used it for different reasons. Not to mention, Beckendorf was great too.

**“This is so cool!” He spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth...half Cherokee, half white—and it was never a compliment.**

Aphrodite glared at the book.

**“Is that some kind of bad joke?”…Jason said. “Half god, half mortal.”**

“Well, you’ve clearly retained some knowledge as well as your gut feelings.” Annabeth mused.

“Hooray for small mercies.” Jason muttered sarcastically.

**Annabeth looked back. “You seem to know a lot, Jason…here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess.”**

“Oh cool. A demigod from one of the new cabins.” Will said excitedly. All of the Greek campers perked up enthusiastically.

“I hope we get to hear about the new cabins and what they look like.” Pollux said.

**Leo choked. “Your mom is a rainbow goddess?”…“No, no,” Leo said. “Rainbows. Very macho.”**

A few of the campers glared at Leo who held his hands up in surrender.

**“Butch is our best equestrian,” Annabeth said. “He gets along great with the pegasi.”**

Silena sighed. At least it seemed like the Pegasi would be in good hands. She hoped so at least.

**“Rainbows, ponies,” Leo muttered.**

**“I’m gonna toss you off this chariot,” Butch warned.**

“And I wouldn’t blame him.” Annabeth muttered.

**“Demigods,” Piper said. “You mean you think you’re…white flames lapping up the side of the chariot.**

“Seriously?” Michael groaned. “I’m betting that’s our chariot too.”

“Sorry.” Annabeth shrugged. “Not a lot I can do with storm spirits chasing us. Considering we’re picking up three, relatively old, demigods we’re lucky there aren’t worse monsters after us.” Michael acknowledged she had a point, but he still wasn’t happy about it.

**The wind roared. Piper glanced behind them…and when it came back to normal, they were in a totally different place.**

Piper and Leo both went a little green in remembered sickness.

“That was not pleasant.” Leo grimaced.

“I hope to never do that again.” Piper agreed.

**A cold gray ocean stretched out to the left…bearing the chariot and the weight of five people was just too much.**

Athena, Hephaestus and Aphrodite all looked anxious. Michael was grimacing. The chariot was going to be in complete ruins.

**“The lake!” Annabeth yelled. “Aim for the lake!”**

“Good idea.” Athena nodded approvingly.

**Piper remembered something her dad had once told her…Fortunately, the horses looked okay,**

“Good.” Silena smiled in relief.

**but they were flapping their wings and splashing water…Apparently kids fell into the lake a lot,**

“It is fairly common.” Clarisse nodded.

“Usually pranks gone wrong.” Connor grinned.

“Or pranks that worked perfectly.” Travis smirked.

**because a detail of campers ran up with big bronze leaf blower–looking things… “I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!”**

“You’ve been taking too many lessons from Percy.” Michael sighed.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to fix it.” Annabeth said. “The Hephaestus cabin can fix pretty much anything.”

**“Will, I’m sorry,” Annabeth sighed. “I’ll get it fixed, I promise.”…but his disappearance seemed to be a big deal.**

“Of course it’s a big deal.” Apollo scowled at Piper as he clutched Percy tighter to him.

“Hey, I was new. I didn’t know.” She glared right back.

**Another girl stepped forward—tall, Asian, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and perfect makeup.**

Everyone turned to look at Drew. She just shrugged.

**Somehow she managed to make jeans and an orange T-shirt look glamorous.**

“Of course, she does.” Silena smiled at her sister. “Drew makes everything extra glamorous.”

“I learned from the best.” Drew shot a glance at Silena.

“Naturally.” Silena chuckled. Drew rolled her eyes but grinned.

**She glanced at Leo, fixed her eyes on Jason…week-old burrito that had just been pulled out of a Dumpster.**

Silena frowned slightly.

**Piper knew this girl’s type. She’d dealt with a lot of girls…Piper knew instantly they were going to be enemies.**

“You don’t know that.” Silena looked unhappy at the declaration. “You’re sisters.”

“ _Half_ -sisters.” Piper muttered. Drew looked sour as if Piper had just beaten her to the clarification. Silena’s frown grew.

“Maybe so but that still means you tolerate each other at the very worst. Besides, even people you consider your enemy can be your friend once you get to know them better.” She gestured at Percy and Clarisse.

“Friends might be stretching it.” Clarisse told her.

“You’re not helping. And you are friends really, we all know it.” Silena smirked at her knowingly. Clarisse rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.

**“Well,” the girl said, “I hope they’re worth the trouble.”**

“Drew, that’s not how we greet new demigods.” Silena told her.

“All demigods are worth saving.” Beckendorf stated.

“Well, so far they’ve lost Gleeson to the storm spirits, Percy’s gone missing and Jason is a Roman who isn’t supposed to be at Camp. Clearly dangerous things are happening around them.” Drew pointed out. “I’ve got a right to be worried.”

“True, you do. But that doesn’t mean you express that in front of the new demigods. We make them feel welcome and talk to Chiron about any concerns.” Silena told her gently. Drew bit her lip and nodded.

**Leo snorted. “Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?”…like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?”**

“Don’t hold your breath for answers.” Percy joked. “Especially if Annabeth does your tour.”

“Hey!” Annabeth shot him a fake glare. He grinned cheekily.

**Piper had the same questions, but a wave of anxiety washed over her. Worth the trouble. If they only knew about her dream. They had no idea…**

Everyone turned to look at Piper with curiosity and concern.

“It’ll probably come up.” She said to deflect any questions.

**“Jason,” Annabeth said, “I promise we’ll answer your questions…Does your hair always look like a dead badger?”**

“Drew.” Aphrodite scolded her daughter.

“Sorry.” Drew looked guiltily at Piper. “You’re welcome at Camp, even if your hair does need some proper styling.” Piper snorted but figured it was the best she was going to get.

**Piper stepped forward, ready to smack her, but Annabeth said…Floating over Leo’s head was a blazing holographic image —a fiery hammer.**

“Well that was quick.” Beckendorf smiled.

“Yeah, apparently the gods were good at keeping to their deal to claim their kids.” Piper stated. She didn’t mention the other stuff like closing Olympus.

**“That,” Annabeth said, “is claiming.”…“This can’t be good,” Butch muttered. “The curse—”**

“What curse?” Beckendorf asked immediately. Everybody shrugged so he turned to look at Leo. “What curse?” He demanded.

“Er, well, there was an issue where pretty much everything cabin 9 made backfired or just didn’t work.” Leo admitted. “I think it’s fixed now. Everything seemed ok once we got back from our quest.” Beckendorf didn’t look any less concerned at that.

**“Butch, shut up,” Annabeth said. “Leo, you’ve just been claimed—”…“I don’t even LIKE Star Trek. What are you talking about?”**

A few people chuckled.

**“Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus,” Annabeth said… Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin Nine.”**

Will and Leo smiled at each other.

**“Sure, Annabeth.”…“Come on, Mr. Spock, I’ll explain everything.”**

More laughter.

**Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins…She studied him more like he was a complicated blueprint.**

“She looks at everyone like that.” Percy laughed.

“Or like she’s deciding how best to kill them.” Thalia added with a grin.

“I did notice that.” Piper laughed.

**Finally she said, “Hold out your arm.”…and over that an eagle with the letters SPQR.**

“So, the fake memories didn’t have all the details correct then.” Thalia noted.

“No.” Leo said. “It missed some small details.”

**“I’ve never seen marks like this,” Annabeth said…“I’m getting really tired of saying this, but I don’t know.”**

“It gets annoying when they expect you to have all the answers.” Percy commiserated.

“Yeah.” Jason agreed.

**The other campers pushed forward, trying to get a look at Jason’s tattoo…“They were,” Jason said. Then he winced as if his head was aching.**

All of the Greeks winced.

“I definitely prefer our beads.” Katie muttered.

“Me too.” Travis agreed.

**“I mean … I think so. I don’t remember.”…Annabeth hesitated. “Good question, Piper. Come on, I’ll give you a tour. We need to talk.”**

“Done.” Percy announced in relief. Thankfully that had been a short chapter.

“I’ll read.” Ares grunted. Percy chucked the book at him which he caught with ease.


	4. Piper IV

“Wait, Piper again? But We only got one chapter of Jason.” Thalia frowned.

“And none from Leo.” Beckendorf put in.

“I’m ok with that.” Leo said quickly. “No need to be reading my thoughts out.”

**Piper soon realized Annabeth’s heart wasn’t in the tour…Could you flunk out of monster fighting?**

“You can but flunking that usually means you die.” Clarisse shrugged. Piper grimaced. Maybe she should learn to use Katoptris for something other than horrible visions. On this quest, only Jason had actually had a weapon and he only had instincts on how to use it. Although Leo had his fire. What did she have? A pretty voice. Not much use in a fight. Maybe Annabeth could give her some lessons.

**A million questions bubbled in her head, but given Annabeth’s mood, she decided to keep quiet.**

“I’m sorry, Piper.” Annabeth frowned.

“It’s ok. You had a lot on your mind.” Piper assured her.

“It’s not ok. I offered to do your tour and now I’m stopping you asking questions.”

**As they climbed a hill at the edge of camp…two wings sticking out the bottom on either side. Piper counted twenty cabins in all.**

“Twenty?” Percy grinned widely. “That’s so cool.”

“We know one is the Hades cabin.” Nico smiled happily. “And another one is Hecate and I’m guessing Iris as she is Butch’s mom; I wonder who the rest are for.”

“Hopefully this will tell us.” Will said eagerly.

**One glowed golden, another silver.**

“Ha!” Apollo cheered. “She noticed mine first.”

**One had grass on the roof. Another was bright red with barbed wire trenches. One cabin was black with fiery green torches out front.**

“Mine still sounds the best.” Nico preened.

“It sounds like you did a great job with the design.” Hades told his son.

**All of it seemed like a different world from the snowy hills…Annabeth nodded. “You’re taking this awfully calmly.”**

“Well, given the morning they’ve just had, it seems a lot more believable.” Chris pointed out.

“Yeah, but Percy killed a Fury and the Minotaur, and he _still_ didn’t believe.” Annabeth reminded him.

“That’s true, but _someone_ messed with the Mist so I wouldn’t believe.” Percy scowled slightly.

**Piper couldn’t tell her why. She couldn’t admit that this just confirmed…When they do, follow our directions. Cooperate, and your father might live.**

“What?” Silena looked at Piper. “You’re dad’s in danger?”

“He was. The guys helped me save him.” Piper smiled at Jason and Leo.

**Piper took a shaky breath. “I guess after this morning…Gods are supposed to claim you when you’re thirteen. That was the deal.”**

“It might be to do with the Great Prophecy.” Apollo stated. “Not just us breaking our deal.”

“If Piper and Leo had been claimed and brought to camp then they wouldn’t have been there when Jason arrived, nor would Coach Hedge, so Camp probably wouldn’t have known to pick him up.” Aphrodite pointed out in agreement.

“Then whoever did this to Jason could have sent him somewhere else.” Annabeth shrugged.

“Yes, but if the other two are part of the prophecy as well, it makes sense that Jason got put with them. They are friends already which makes being part of a team much easier.” Beckendorf pointed out.

“Friends via fake memories.” Drew shrugged.

“It still forms a bond that probably wouldn’t be there otherwise.” Katie said.

**“The deal?”…A flaming wombat, maybe.**

A few people chuckled.

“I wonder who would have a flaming wombat as a symbol?” Percy laughed. “You could.” He smirked at Apollo.”

“Excuse me?” Apollo put on an exaggerated offended expression. Percy just continued to grin up at him.

**Whoever her mother was, Piper had no reason to think she’d…she couldn’t believe he’d sacrificed himself to save them.**

She had totally revised that opinion now. She was super grateful to Coach Hedge.

“It’s his job.” Clarisse grunted anxiously. She really hoped Gleeson was ok. He was the only person who had never judged her for being a daughter of Ares, in fact he had loved it.

**“What happened to him?” she asked. “When we went up…“Jason’s sword just turned them to dust,” Piper remembered.**

“He’s a son of Zeus.” Annabeth said. “He would be able to destroy them without too much effort.”

“Without much effort?” Jason looked at her in disbelief.

“I mean you don’t need to worry about hitting them in just the right spot to destroy them.” She corrected herself. Jason nodded.

**“He was lucky, then. If you hit a monster just right…well, I don’t know why he’d keep Hedge alive.**

Clarisse clenched her fists angrily and Grover looked down sadly.

**Hedge was a protector, though. He knew the risks…Piper tried to imagine Coach Hedge as a clump of very angry pansies.**

Leo tried very had not to laugh at that. He knew the others wouldn’t appreciate him finding that funny.

**That made her feel even worse…which meant she had brothers and sisters, more people she’d have to betray.**

Drew narrowed her eyes. She still couldn’t believe that Silena had been a traitor and then died which would leave her in charge of their cabin. Now there was another traitor coming in?

“Piper, who had your dad?” Annabeth asked nervously.

“Er…you’ll find out.” Piper offered weakly.

**Do what we tell you, the voice had said…“My dad’s running out of places to put me.”**

“Only five?” Percy laughed. Piper chuckled.

“That’s exactly what Annabeth said.” She grinned.

**“Only five?” Annabeth didn’t sound like she was teasing…“Right. It’s because we’re hardwired for battle.**

“I’m not sure about that.” Leo muttered. Maybe they were _supposed_ to be battle reflexes, but he couldn’t even use a weapon without almost killing himself. He wasn’t much use in an actual battle unless there were machines he could use.

**Restless, impulsive—we don’t fit in with regular kids…Later, he realized what he’d done, I guess. Then the police came after me.”**

“That is some pretty strong charm speak.” Aphrodite looked at her daughter proudly.

“It sounds like you didn’t even have to try.” Silena smiled.

“I didn’t.” Piper agreed.

**Piper waited. She was used to people calling her a liar…He can be pretty convincing.**

“Not _that_ convincing.” Travis sighed regretfully.

“Plus, we would actually have stolen it.” Connor added with a grin.

“Not something you should be proud of.” Katie hissed at him. He just shrugged and continued smirking.

**But your dad is mortal…”…Piper wondered if Olympian gods ever blasted their kids with lightning for being evil, or grounded them in the Underworld.**

“I wouldn’t put it past certain gods to do the first.” Percy muttered, glancing over at Zeus.

“And my dad does the second.” Nico added.

**Annabeth was studying her. Piper decided she was going to have…A friend’s place. I’ve been expecting her for a few days, but so far, nothing.”**

“Oh, is that my new place?” Rachel asked eagerly.

“With old bones and broken swords for décor? Lovely.” Percy grimaced.

“That’s only on the way there.” Rachel shrugged. “I’m sure the inside is awesome. I can’t wait to see it.”

**“Your friend lives in a cave?”…Something glittered in its lowest branch—like a fuzzy gold bath mat.**

“Bath mat?” Silena laughed.

“I’m assuming she means the Golden Fleece.” Will snickered.

“It looks like a mat from distance.” Piper defended herself.

“It kind of does.” Percy agreed.

**No … not a bath mat. It was a sheep’s fleece…“Three days, six hours, and about twelve minutes.”**

“Wow.” Percy gaped. “Annabeth, you need to look after yourself too. You’re not going to find me if you wear yourself out too much.”

“Besides, whoever did this has a lot of power.” Poseidon scowled. “You’re not going to find Percy unless they want you to find him.” The tone of his voice suggested unpleasant things for whoever had done this.

“We still have to try.” Annabeth frowned.

“I would if it was you who had gone missing.” Percy admitted. Apollo scowled at that.

**“And you’ve got no idea what happened to him?”…We were so excited because we both started winter break early.**

“Winter break? So we’ve had like, four or five months off. That’s it.” Percy sighed.  
  


“Honestly, that’s better than I was expecting.” Annabeth grimaced.

**We met up at camp on Tuesday, figured we had three weeks together…“Almost exactly when I met Jason,” Piper said. “But we’ve only been together a few weeks.”**

“Wait, what? You have four _months_ ’ worth of fake memories?” Annabeth frowned. “I thought it was only a few weeks.”

“No, I thought we had been dating for a few weeks.” Piper grimaced.

“Four months is a long time. Whoever did this must have wanted you, Leo and Jason to have been really good friends.” Silena mused. “I can’t think of any other reason they would give you and Leo so many memories.”

“But why is that so important?” Leo wanted to know.

“Might be to do with the prophecy, or it could be because Jason is a Roman demigod.” Annabeth guessed. “Given that Greek and Roman demigods have been kept apart, my guess is we were enemies and so they thought it best to make sure Jason had some Greek friends before coming to Camp.”

Everyone considered this as Ares continued reading.

**Annabeth winced. “Piper … about that. Maybe you should sit down.”…“No. You said yourself I’m not a regular mortal. I’m a demigod.”**

“As sucky as it is, it still affects us.” Percy grumbled.

**“Even demigods can be affected. I’ve seen it lots of times…I finally got the stupid guy to kiss me. . . .”**

“I’m sorry, Piper.” Silena smiled at her, looking sympathetic. “That really sucks.” Piper nodded and shot another subtle glare at Hera. She really hated that goddess.

Jason squeezed her hand. “Hey, we made it anyway.” He said quietly.

“Yeah. We did.” Piper agreed but she sighed. She secretly was hoping for some more chapters from Jason’s point of view so she could find out if he had liked her back because he did _like_ her or just out of pity.

**She found herself rambling, telling Annabeth…he could even put up with hyperactive Leo and his stupid jokes.**

“Gee, thanks. Good to know I’m so hard to put up with.” Leo muttered to himself a little bitterly. Some friends those two were. This Mist stuff gave them memories to make them be friends with Jason, but no such luck for him. His best friend had no memory of him at all and thought his life must be messed up for them to be friends. And his other friend apparently was surprised someone could put up with him. Nice.

Beckendorf overheard and felt bad for his brother. So far, the other thoughts hadn’t exactly been complimentary about him.

“Hey, I know the Stolls would totally appreciate your stupid jokes.” He whispered quietly. “And you can always come to the forges with me.”

“Thanks, man.” Leo said gratefully, and he meant it. He felt another wave of regret that Beckendorf had died before he could meet him in the future. Then he was grateful for this opportunity to meet his older brother.

**He’d accepted her for herself and didn’t judge her…All that couldn’t be fake.**

“Those memories are really detailed.” Silena noted.

“Which just makes it even more likely that whoever did this really wanted Jason to have some friends before he got to Camp.” Annabeth frowned. “Or at least people to vouch for him.”

“But then why not give Jason the fake memories too? It would make everything easier.” Michael wondered.

“Because it would be too complicated. Piper and Leo were actually at the Wilderness school the whole time. I’m guessing Jason was at Camp Jupiter doing whatever. If someone gave him fake memories and then his real memories returned it would be bad. Having four months of two conflicting sets of memories might drive him insane.” Silena stated. Aphrodite smiled proudly at her daughter.

“I’m a fan of not going insane.” Jason muttered.

**Annabeth pursed her lips. “Piper, your memories are a lot…She started to cry. She felt like a total fool,**

“I’m sorry, Piper.” Annabeth looked a little guilty.

“It’s not your fault.” Piper sighed. “You were just telling me the truth.” Aphrodite scowled. She was all for putting love through challenges, it had to be done to make the love stronger, but starting love under false pretenses? That was just wrong. Love founded on fake memories and guilt was an aberration. Her daughter seemed to have made it work for her which showed how amazing Piper was, but it still offended her that somebody had done this. And to do it to her own daughter? Somebody was going to pay for using her daughter like that and hurting her.

**but she sat down on the rock next to Annabeth…good in her stupid, miserable life have to be taken away?**

Now Jason was the one shooting Hera subtle glares. He was really tempted to just blurt out it was her who had done all of this so he could sit back and watch the explosion.

**Yes, the dream had told her. Yes, unless you do exactly what we say…brought me up here so no one would see me blubbering, huh?”**

“Thanks for that.” Piper smiled over at Annabeth.

“You’re welcome.” She smiled in return. “That’s not something anyone should have to go through, especially in public.”

**Annabeth shrugged. “I figured it would be hard for you…You’ll betray them for us, the voice had warned. Or you’ll lose everything.**

“You know,” Silena said conversationally. “I’m really beginning to hate that voice.” Her voice was light but Beckendorf saw how tense she was. Silena felt terrible for her sister and could empathize very easily. That stupid dream she kept mentioning reminded her way too much of Luke and how she had felt about betraying all her friends at Camp, especially Charlie.

“I think we all are.” Beckendorf agreed. He knew exactly why Silena was so tense and it made him angry with Luke all over again.

**She didn’t have a choice…“Bunch of showoffs with missile weapons—arrows, basketballs.”**

Apollo smirked while Michael and Will grinned proudly.

**They walked past a central fire pit, where two guys…“That’s sort of the point,” Annabeth said.**

The Stolls, Leo and Percy all burst out laughing while Annabeth grimaced and rolled her eyes.

**“Uh, sorry. Bad pun. That’s my cabin over there. Number Six.”…unless you wanted to make war on your tomato plants.**

Katie and Demeter looked offended by that.

“Why would you do such a thing?” Katie frowned. Piper just shrugged.

**The shed was lined with all sorts of weapons…Annabeth handed her a massive sword, which Piper could hardly lift.**

“Definitely not.” Nico laughed.

“Not sure what I was thinking with that.” Annabeth frowned.

**“No,” they both said at once…It’s modified to shoot Celestial bronze, so it only kills monsters.”**

“You have a shotgun?” Percy asked interestedly.

“We’ve got tons of stuff.” Annabeth grinned at him.

“Wicked.” He looked quite excited by this.

**“Um, I don’t think that’s my style,” Piper said…The polished wood handle fit beautifully in Piper’s hand.**

“Always a good sign.” Clarisse nodded.

**When she unsheathed it, she found a triangular blade eighteen…well, things didn’t turn out too well for her. Her name was Helen.”**

“Wait, we have Helen of Troy’s knife just sitting in a shed?” Will looked astonished.

“We have loads of famous Greek weapons.” Annabeth shrugged.

“Well, yeah, but that’s really cool.” Nico said.

**Piper let that sink in. “Wait, you mean the Helen? Helen of Troy?”…that’s the only thing Helen used it for. I don’t think it’s ever seen battle.”**

“Probably not.” Clarisse said.

“Did you get any training for using a knife?” Annabeth asked. It wasn’t commonly taught in the fighting class because so few people used a knife. Luke had taught her personally.

“No. There really wasn’t much time for training before we got sent on a quest and then brought here.” Piper explained.

“I know that feeling.” Percy muttered.

“I can give you a few lessons if you like?” Annabeth offered.

“That would be great.” Piper smiled. If they were going on some big quest to fulfil some Great Prophecy, she should probably know how to use her weapon. It had sounded like they had some time at Camp before the ship Leo and his siblings were building would be ready to fly. Hopefully, future Piper had used that time wisely.

**Piper looked at the blade again. For a moment…She saw her dad in chains, tied to a post in front of a roaring bonfire.**

“Oh gods.” Silena gasped. “That’s horrible.”

“Your dad is ok right? You guys saved him?” Annabeth asked anxiously.

“Yeah.” Piper nodded.

**She dropped the blade.**

“I don’t blame you.” Jason muttered.

**“Piper?” Annabeth shouted to the Apollo kids on the court… But … I want to keep the dagger, if that’s okay.”**

“Seriously? Why? That sounded terrible.” Drew said and Piper was surprised to note she actually looked concerned.

“Because it showed me my dad.” Piper told her. “And it was the only way I could see how he was doing.”

“Fair enough.” Drew nodded understandingly.

**Annabeth hesitated. Then she waved off the Apollo kids…letting monsters know where you are. But … I’ve got one.”**

“Woah. Really?” Connor asked, looking both thrilled and impressed. “Our Annie, breaking the rules.” She glared at him.

“Do not call me Annie.” She hissed. He just smirked at her.

“I’ve corrupted her.” Percy grinned.

**She slipped it out of her pocket…“Piper, I thought you weren’t supposed to call from school.”**

“Why wouldn’t you be allowed to call from school?” Jason frowned. “You just said you could call once a day.”

“We only get one call. Jane probably knows I called dad’s cell first so I shouldn’t be making that second call.” Piper explained.

**“Maybe I’m not at school,” Piper said…hoping Annabeth was too nice to eavesdrop.**

“I would have said so but this Annabeth is a rebel.” Percy grinned widely. “So, who knows. Combine her newfound love of rule breaking with her natural curiosity and she might eavesdrop.”

“I would not.” Annabeth protested.

**“When are you going to call the police, Jane? He could be in trouble.”…He does take off occasionally. He always comes back.”**

“So, she has no idea where he is then?” Percy frowned.

“She doesn’t sound concerned either, though.” Silena noted.

**“So it’s true. You don’t know—”…Her standard response. Not a lie, just not the whole truth.**

“Nice.” Chris nodded approvingly. “Always the best way to lie. Keep an element of truth in there.”

“You don’t like people knowing your dad is an actor?” Silena asked.

“Nope.” Piper shook her head and refused to say any more.

**Most people, when they heard that, figured her dad sold Indian…No burning signs—wombats or otherwise—appeared over her head.**

“It usually happens when there is a crowd.” Will told her.

**Cabin Eight was entirely silver and glowed like moonlight…Thankfully, Annabeth didn’t seem to make the connection.**

“Urgh.” Annabeth looked frustrated with herself. Not that she really cared who Piper’s dad was but it annoyed her not to put the pieces together.

“You had a lot on your mind.” Piper smiled slightly.

**“Anyway,” Annabeth continued, “Artemis is goddess of the moon…stories of Artemis, and figured she would make a cool mom.**

Artemis smiled over at Piper.

**“Well, there are the Hunters of Artemis,” Annabeth amended…Piper perked up. “That sounds cool. They get to be immortal?”**

“It is cool.” Thalia grinned.

“It does sound amazing but I’m a bit too fond of this one to swear off guys forever.” She gestured to Jason.

“Well, if you ever change your mind, let me know.” Thalia smiled. Piper nodded but she couldn’t see herself doing it.

**“Unless they die in combat, or break their vows…Piper thought she’d be a cool friend to hang out with in better times.**

Annabeth and Piper smiled at each other.

**Forget it, Piper reminded herself. You’re not going…“Gah, is that where supermodels go to die?”**

Aphrodite and Silena frowned while Drew looked offended.

“You do have rather a lot of perfume in there.” Beckendorf told Silena.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Silena grinned at him.

“Not necessarily _bad_ , it’s just, it can be a bit…overwhelming.” He said carefully. Silena laughed.

**Annabeth smirked. “Aphrodite’s cabin. Goddess of love…Annabeth said. “The last head counselor we had was great.”**

Drew narrowed her eyes. Annabeth seemed to be implying she was not a great head counselor. And that she was, in fact, one of the bad ones. Like she wanted to be head counselor. As far as she was concerned, that was Silena’s position.

“I’m sure Drew will do a great job.” Silena backed her sister. Piper coughed so she could hide her snort of derision. Drew was many things but from Piper’s experience, she was a terrible head counselor. And the way she had treated her siblings was just as bad.

**“What happened to her?”…Piper killed every plant she ever touched.**

“Not one of mine then.” Demeter grimaced.

**Athena was cool. Or maybe Hecate, the magic goddess…who didn’t have thrones on Olympus—Hecate, Hades, Iris—”**

“Hey, I wonder if we made an honorary Hestia cabin.” Percy frowned. “I haven’t heard one mentioned, or any cabin described that could be hers.”

“I do not need a cabin.” Hestia said gently.

“That’s not the point. Hera and Artemis don’t need cabins either. Actually, I guess the Hunters use the Artemis one. Hera doesn’t need a cabin either, but she has one out of respect. You should too.” Percy stated adamantly. Hestia smiled at him.

“Well, if we haven’t planned for one then we will this time.” Chiron said.

**“What are the two big ones on the end?” Piper asked…The cabin bothered her, though she wasn’t sure why.**

Piper definitely knew why now. Everything about the goddess bothered her.

“I don’t blame you.” Annabeth muttered. Hera glared at both of them.

**“Goddess of marriage. ” Annabeth’s tone was carefully controlled…but when Percy disappeared … I got this weird dream vision from her.”**

“Hera.” Poseidon growled in a warning tone.

“I have done nothing, brother.” Hera said. “I may have just been trying to help the girl.”

“Oh yes, because you are always so helpful.” Hermes scoffed.

**“Telling you to come get us,” Piper said…“I’ve got nothing good to say about Hera right now.”**

Hera’s scowl deepened. She tried to help and this was what she got for it. Disgraceful.

**Piper looked down the base of the doors. “So who goes in here?”…Mother knows best. Now don’t cross me or I will have to step on you.**

“That does sound like mother.” Hephaestus grunted.

**There was nothing else in the cabin—no beds, no furniture, no bathroom, no windows, nothing that anyone could actually use to live.**

“That’s because nobody is supposed to live there.” Hera snapped.

**For a goddess of home and marriage, Hera’s place reminded Piper of a tomb.**

“My dad’s cabin isn’t any better.” Jason muttered.

“It’s downright creepy.” Thalia agreed.

**No, this wasn’t her mom. At least Piper was sure of that…but because her sense of dread was stronger here.**

Aphrodite glared at Hera. Hera would certainly have the power to bring Jason there and mess with their memories. Then she glanced over at Apollo and Poseidon. The goddess was certainly playing with fire if she was the one who had taken Percy. And Aphrodite planned to help.

**Her dream—that horrible ultimatum she’d been handed—had something to do with this cabin.**

“What? Why would Hera kidnap your dad? She wouldn’t want you to betray Camp.” Michael frowned. Hera might not be great, but she wouldn’t make a demigod betray the camp.

“It wasn’t Hera who kidnapped my dad.” Piper said. Aphrodite relaxed a little.

**She froze. They weren’t alone. Behind the statue…Annabeth gasped. “Rachel?”**

“Why would you be in Hera’s cabin?” Percy frowned at his friend.

“I guess if Hera is involved in some way, maybe I had a feeling about it or something.” Rachel shrugged. “I don’t know how being the Oracle works.”

**The other girl turned. She dropped her shawl…“The friend who lives in the cave,” Piper guessed.**

“Not the worst way I’ve been remembered.” Rachel laughed.

**Rachel grinned. “That’s me.”…“More like the future mugs me from time to time,” Rachel said.**

Everybody laughed at that.

**“I speak prophecies. The oracle’s spirit kind of hijacks me…Something about this cabin and Percy’s disappearance.**

“HERA!” Poseidon roared. Apollo was on his feet in seconds.

“Now, Poseidon, calm down.” Hera eyed her brother warily. “We do not know what has happened yet.”

“And yet all of the problems seem to somehow involve you.” He growled back.

“Maybe we should get all the facts before you do something rash.” Aphrodite spoke up. “That way we have a full account of her crimes before we decide what to do about it.” A malicious gleam shone in her eyes. Poseidon considered her for a second before nodding. Apollo snarled but a tug on his arm from Percy had him sitting down as well.

Piper was looking at her mom in a whole new light.

“Crimes?” Hera asked, looking offended.

“Well, so far, it sounds like you have kidnapped my son and are probably also behind Jason’s appearance as well as the fake memories of the other two.” Poseidon glowered at his sister. “And if you have brought Jason to the Greek camp then I can guess where you have sent Percy and if I am correct, you are going to regret it Hera. I promise you that.” Hera shrunk back a little, vividly recalling her brother’s vicious temper.

“If this is true you have broken our laws on bringing the Greeks and Romans together.” Zeus looked at his wife unhappily.

“I would not have done it unless it needed to be done.” Hera sniffed haughtily. “And judging by the fact that there are Romans here, reading with the Greeks, it needed to be done.”

**They’re connected somehow. I’ve learned to follow my hunches, especially the last month, since the gods went silent.”**

“What?” Percy scowled. “What does it mean, went silent?”

“Well, if you didn’t interrupt the reading you might find out.” Thalia teased him, trying to lighten the mood.

**“Went silent?” Piper asked…Even my mom won’t answer my prayers, and our camp director, Dionysus, was recalled.”**

“I’m guessing this is what Hermes was talking about when he said Zeus had been threatening to do something.” Ares stated grimly.

“He was threatening to close Olympus off?” Annabeth asked in disbelief. “But why now?”

“It’s likely our brother trying to ignore whatever problem is the cause of this Great Prophecy.” Poseidon looked darkly at his brother. “It appears he has not learnt anything from the last Great Prophecy. In fact, it seems to have gotten worse.”

“Which is probably because of his wounded pride from your son’s request.” Hades added.

“So, because I wanted all the gods to be respected and for you to treat your kids properly. Zeus is now going to close Olympus and refuse to contact us during what is probably going to be a very dangerous time?” Percy looked furious.

“It would seem that way.” Apollo’s voice was calm but it was the dangerous kid of calm, the calm that comes right before the storm.

“Once we have more details, we are going to need yet another _discussion_ brother.” Poseidon sent Zeus a threatening look. “It seems your management skills are in need of yet another refresher course.”

“But Leo got claimed.” Beckendorf pointed out.

“That only takes a second and we can claim our kids even with Olympus closed.” Hermes explained grimly.

**“Your camp director was the god of … wine?”…“And Jason showed up on our field trip,” Piper supplied. “With no memory.”**

Everyone turned to scowl at Zeus and Hera.

**“Who’s Jason?” Rachel asked…I’ll find out what happened to Percy if I go to the Grand Canyon skywalk and look for a guy with one shoe.**

“So Jason is definitely the clue to finding Percy.” Annabeth said. “Wait. Does that mean Percy is at the Roman Camp?”

“It seems likely.” Nico nodded anxiously. Reyna grimaced. She could imagine how interesting things would get it Percy Jackson showed up at their camp with no memories. She also wondered how Hera would be able to get him some friends to vouch for him in the Roman camp. They didn’t have a system like the Greeks did. Still, she would probably find out soon enough.

**Instead, I find you guys, and the guy with one shoe is Jason…Free me, Piper McLean, or the earth shall swallow us. It must be by the solstice.**

“That doesn’t sound like the Oracle.” Percy frowned.

“No.” Apollo scowled. “Someone hijacked my Oracle to send Piper a message. And I can guess who.” He turned his scowl on his stepmother.

“The message said to free her? Does that mean someone has captured Hera?” Annabeth asked.

“Good for them.” Poseidon said. Hera glared at him.

“It is _not_ good.” She snapped.

“Your right. I feel sorry for whoever did kidnap you.” He grimaced in sympathy.

“Poseidon.” Zeus growled warningly.

“Well, it serves her right for kidnapping my son.” Poseidon shrugged. “If she doesn’t like it then maybe she shouldn’t kidnap other people. Which includes your son by the way.” He gestured at Jason.

**The room started spinning. Annabeth tried to separate Piper…Piper’s knees buckled, and everything went black.**

“Well, that doesn’t sound good.” Percy noted in a fake cheerful tone.

“Chapter’s done.” Ares stated.

“Let’s take a break for an early lunch.” Chiron suggested.

Everyone stood up and eagerly made their way out of the throne room.


	5. Leo V

All the demigods ate their lunch fairly quickly. Poseidon, Apollo and Aphrodite had all cornered Hera before she could leave the throne room. Zeus hovered for a second, wondering if he should rescue his wife but he was also quite angry with her. He also had no desire to draw Poseidon’s wrath upon himself so decided to leave before they turned on him.

“You might not have done anything _yet_ but if you dare mess with my son then nothing in this world will stop be extracting my revenge.” Poseidon warned her in his most serious voice.

“And if you mess with my daughter, or use my domain in such a disgusting fashion, I will see to it you remember which of us is the eldest of the gods.” Aphrodite stated darkly. “I was born from the seed of Ouranos long before you or Zeus were even thought of. It could be said that I have a greater claim to the throne of Olympus than any of you. Now, I do not wish for the throne, but I would certainly back Poseidon should he decide you are both unworthy.”

Hera gulped. She had never really thought of Aphrodite as scary before but this goddess in front of her was not the airheaded, shallow goddess they had all come to expect. That, combined with Poseidon and an equally furious Apollo, was all in all rather worrying. Hera was even more concerned considering they were all seemingly mortal.

“Well, there is not much I can do about it now.” She pointed out. “As you correctly said, I have done nothing.”

“But you will, and you show no remorse for the consequences of your actions. _That_ is what we take issue with.” Poseidon told her. “Now, as Aphrodite wisely suggested, we shall wait and see what further ridiculousness you and Zeus come up with before we take action.” The three swept from the room leaving Hera feeling uncomfortable, scared and also furious.

They joined the demigods in the dining hall. Leo sat with Percy, Katie and the Stolls, listening to accounts of their various pranks. Occasionally Katie commented, or smacked Travis’ shoulder but she also spent most of the time laughing. Leo told them some of his own stories which the sons of Hermes highly approved of. Katie just rolled her eyes.

“Just what they need. More encouragement. It’s a good job Percy doesn’t have much time for pranks in between all of his saving the world missions.” But her tone was teasing, and Leo didn’t get the same sense of disapproval that he did from Piper. Katie only seemed to disapprove or get very annoyed when either they pranked her cabin or when they did something that could have been dangerous if it went wrong.

“I should work on that. People keep saying I need to relax more.” Percy mused.

“We’re only too happy to help.” Leo offered.

“Between your skills at making stuff and the Stoll’s sneakiness, it’s going to be awesome.” Percy grinned. The four of them exchanged hi-fives while Katie just put her face in her hands, wondering what had just been unleashed.

Eventually they all finished eating and headed back to the throne room. They retook their seats and Aphrodite took the book.

“I’ll read.” She announced. **“Leo.”** Aphrodite read out.

“Oh goodie. My turn.” Leo said sarcastically.

“I’d say you get used to it…but you don’t.” Percy told him.

“Very comforting.” Leo muttered. Percy grinned at him and he rolled his eyes.

**Leo’s tour was going great until he learned about the dragon.**

“What dragon? Peleus?” Will frowned.

“Or the metal dragon.” Beckendorf looked grim. Given that Leo knew it well enough to name it, he figured it would have a big part to play.

**The archer dude, Will Solace, seemed pretty cool…They were definitely worth drowning for.**

All the guys chuckled, a few gods were nodding agreement, while the females all rolled their eyes.

**Will showed him the cabins, the dining pavilion, and the sword arena…Will glanced at him like he found the idea disturbing.**

Leo might have been offended except Will probably had good reason to look like that.

“He needs some kind of weapon.” Beckendorf said. “Maybe we can make something for you to use. Just in case of emergencies.” Leo nodded despite being fairly sure it was a terrible idea.

**“You’ll probably make your own, seeing as how you’re in Cabin Nine.”…he was still dismayed. “Sounds like the god of cowboys.”**

A few people chuckled as Leo went red.

**“He-phaestus,” Will corrected. “God of blacksmiths and fire.”…Considering what had happened to his mom, that seemed like a sick joke.**

Leo cursed inwardly but to his surprise nobody asked what had happened to his mom. He saw Beckendorf, Percy and the Stolls all shooting him worried and sympathetic looks, but they had the awareness not to ask the question.

**“So the flaming hammer over my head,” Leo said…“Died? Like, painfully?”**

“Really, Leo?” Piper rolled her eyes.

“It seemed like a fair question.” Leo shrugged. “I didn’t know anything about this Camp and then I’m being told about curses and people who died. It was freaky.”

“Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.” Will grimaced.

“It’s ok. It just freaked me out for a while.”

“I don’t blame you.” Percy muttered. “It’s hard enough finding out about a whole new world without that stuff as well.” Leo nodded his agreement.

**“I ought to let your bunkmates tell you about it.”…“He, um, can’t. You’ll see why.” Will forged ahead before Leo could ask anything else.**

“What? That sounds like something happened to Jake?” Beckendorf frowned anxiously. Leo fought back a wince.

**“Curses and death,” Leo said to himself…He was halfway across the green when he spotted his old babysitter.**

“What?” Beckendorf looked at Leo, eyebrow raised. “Why would your babysitter be at Camp?”

“It’s a long story.” Leo told him, looking unhappy it had come up at all. Although, he was all for Hera getting into more trouble.

**And she was not the kind of person he expected to see at a demigod camp…shadow of a big white cabin at the end of the green, watching him.**

“Why do I guess that’s Hera’s cabin she’s in front of?” Annabeth groaned.

“Why would Hera babysit a demigod? She hates demigods.” Thalia frowned.

“Stay away from my son.” Hephaestus grunted at his mother.

**She wore her black linen widow’s dress, with a black shawl…How about we head straight to your cabin now?”**

“Great. Will can’t see her.” Beckendorf frowned.

**Leo wanted to protest, but when he looked back toward…And that wasn’t good, because Tía Callida had tried to kill him.**

“WHAT?” Hephaestus roared. Leo looked at him in surprise. “Why did she try to kill you?” He asked through clenched teeth.

“Apparently she was trying to make me a hero.” Leo said dryly. “Testing my powers and stuff.”

“You are a hero.” Beckendorf said.

“Why would Leo warrant a home visit from Hera?” Michael frowned.

“You have no proof I did anything.” Hera pointed out haughtily.

“I wouldn’t take that tone.” Apollo glared at her. “You’ve already reached out to speak to Piper and his stupid babysitter was standing near your cabin. It’s definitely going to be your fault.”

“It also means that, if it was Hera, she’s been planning this since Leo was a kid. She’s had an idea what is going to happen for years now.” Annabeth narrowed her eyes at the goddess. Everyone turned to look at Hera.

“Well, I don’t know _now_.” She rolled her eyes.

“Maybe not but clearly, when you do know you won’t tell anyone what you suspect you just started trying to kill children.” Hephaestus growled.

“They boy has already said I wasn’t trying to kill him. I was helping him become a hero.”

“He doesn’t need any help to be a hero.” Hephaestus snapped. “Especially not your brand of ‘help’.” Leo watched his dad yell at Hera in slight surprise. He’d had barely a handful of conversations with the god and none of them indicated many paternal feelings and yet here he was, getting angry that Hera had tried to kill Leo. Where was this protective anger when dirt face had killed his mom?

“Dear, let me keep reading.” Aphrodite said soothingly to her husband. “We can add this to the list.” He grunted and nodded his head.

**“Just messing with you, man. ” Leo pulled some gears and levers…At least, not crazier than he really was.**

“We’re all some kind of crazy.” Chris smiled.

“Yeah. I’m still not sure I’ve got anything on Percy.” Leo grinned.

“Probably not.” Apollo sighed. His boyfriend really was a trouble magnet. He couldn’t wait for the full extent of Hera’s plotting came to light. She was not getting out of this. And he suspected his dad wasn’t either. If his plan was to close Olympus and ignore whatever huge problem was heading their way, then he was in massive trouble. Poseidon would never stand for it. And neither would he.

**“Let’s go see Cabin Nine,” he said. “I’m in the mood for a good curse.”…maybe some traps to keep out unwanted visitors.**

“Good guess.” Beckendorf grinned at him.

“That sounds awesome.” Dakota said eagerly.

“It is.” Leo agreed. Most of the Romans were intrigued. While they didn’t like the idea of being separated by godly parent, they had to admit the cabins sounded like incredible places to sleep. And the uniqueness of each one was amazing.

**At least, that’s the way Leo would’ve designed it…A circular staircase led down into some kind of basement.**

“How come we don’t have a second floor and a basement?” Travis complained.

“We need it considering all the campers we have.”

“Hephaestus cabin secret.” Beckendorf grinned. “Besides, your cabin should be emptying out a bit soon.”

**The walls were lined with every kind of power tool Leo…Leo had a strong urge to shovel them all into his coat pockets.**

Beckendorf and Hephaestus chuckled.

**He loved that kind of stuff. But he’d need a hundred more coats to fit it all…It was the only way to stay ahead of the sadness.**

Leo cursed inwardly again and looked at the floor to avoid all the pitying gazes he was likely to be getting. He felt a hand on his shoulder and knew it was Beckendorf’s. His first instinct was to shake it off, make some joke and move on but it was too nice to actually have some genuine comfort for a change. Something he hadn’t had since his mom died.

**He picked a long implement from the wall… He looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy after a beat-down.**

“What?” Beckendorf sounded horrified. Hephaestus grimaced, fists clenching and unclenching in his worry.

“What the heck happened? Capture the flag gone horribly wrong?” Clarisse winced.

“Or it has something to do with this curse and some invention backfired.” Michael grimaced.

**“I’m Jake Mason,” the guy said.**

“Oh gods. Poor Jake.” Beckendorf whispered. Chris looked equally anxious.

**“I’d shake your hand, but …”…I’m head counselor for now.”**

“For now?” Beckendorf frowned. “It’s Jake’s position after…well, with me gone.” Boy was that weird to say.

“Jake never wanted to be counselor.” Chris said, being good friends with the son of Hephaestus. “He doesn’t even want to be in line for the position. He’s probably trying to persuade someone else to take it.”

“Which is going to be difficult given the current situation with the curse.” Will grimaced.

“Why didn’t he say so?” Beckendorf frowned. Of course, he knew Jake wasn’t overly keen on leading, he didn’t realize he had wanted to be taken out of the running altogether.

“I doubt he was expecting it so soon. And besides, it’s not really ‘the done thing’ to ask not to be a head counselor. It’s supposed to be an honour.” Chris sighed.

“Yeah, but I’d have no issues if Jake just said he didn’t want to. I’d name someone else to take over.” Beckendorf said.

“Maybe you should talk to him when we get back.” Chris shrugged.

“I will.” Beckendorf nodded.

**“For now?” Leo asked...without remembering my mom in that machine shop fire.**

Now everyone understood Leo’s thought about his dad being the god of fire being a sick joke.

“I’m really sorry to hear that about your mom, Leo.” Percy said sympathetically. He could recall the time when he thought his mom was dead as if it had been yesterday. Nobody deserved that. No wonder Leo wanted to outrun the sadness.

Leo just nodded, unable to say anything around the lump in his throat. He avoided everyone’s gaze, but he felt Beckendorf’s hand tighten on his shoulder. It helped.

**Don’t talk to me about ghosts, doughboy…“That’s good. Because I’ll give you the best bed in the cabin—Beckendorf’s.”**

“You’re in for a treat.” Beckendorf smirked.

“Yeah. Your bunk is seriously cool.” Leo told him. “I love it.”

“Hey man, it’s yours now.”

“Not if we fix this. Then you can keep that one and I can design my own one.” Leo said.

“Fair enough.” Beckendorf laughed.

**“Whoa, Jake,” Will said. “You sure?”…and a whole bunch of control panels running down the side.**

“Woah. That sounds amazing!” Connor said jealously. “And some of our campers have to sleep on the floor because we don’t have enough beds.”

“It does sound incredible.” Will nodded.

“When we get some spare time, we’ll design something to create more space in the Hermes cabin.” Beckendorf promised Connor. It did feel wrong that they all had their own private rooms while the Hermes guys barely had enough room to sleep without being curled into a ball.

“Thanks, man.” Travis grinned.

**Leo jumped right in and lay back with arms behind his head…“It retracts into a private room below,” Jake said.**

“Wait. You even have your own private rooms?” Annabeth asked.

“Yep.” Leo nodded.

“We have loads of stuff you guys don’t know about.” Beckendorf smirked. “As I’m sure your cabin does too.”

**“Oh, heck, yes,” Leo said. “See y’all. I’ll be down in the Leo Cave…maybe a grenade sewn inside the pillows. “He didn’t, like, die in this bed, did he?”**

“Seriously?” Michael rolled his eyes.

“Hey, it was a valid question. They kept going on about some curse and stuff malfunctioning, how was I to know he didn’t die because the bed malfunctioned?”

“Because if that was what had happened, Jake wouldn’t have given you the bunk.” Katie pointed out.

“Oh, yeah. I was freaked out.” Leo defended himself.

**“No,” Jake said. “In the Titan War, last summer.”…“which has nothing to do with this very fine bed?”**

“No. My bed is fine.” Now Beckendorf was rolling his eyes.

**“The Titans,” Will said, like Leo was an idiot…“I’m guessing this wasn’t on the news?” Leo said.**

“Yeah. It was. It was all the cities being destroyed by a huge freak storm.” Thalia told him.

“I know that _now_.” Leo reminded her.

“It sucks when they answer your very valid questions like you’re stupid, doesn’t it?” Percy grumbled. “At least Will is actually answering your questions I suppose.” Annabeth rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. He smirked at her.

**It seemed like a fair question, but Will shook his head in disbelief…Last summer, he’d been on the run from another foster home.**

“Not much time for watching the news then.” Percy said lightly.

“Not really.” Leo shrugged.

**Then a truancy officer caught him in New Mexico…Then again, the dude was in a body cast. That was an answer.**

Everyone grimaced at that. They wondered how to break the curse and how it had come about in the first place.

**Leo started noticing little things that he hadn’t seen before…maybe out of frustration. The place did feel unlucky.**

“Don’t let it get in your head.” Annabeth advised.

“it was kind of hard not to.” Leo pointed out.

**Jake sighed halfheartedly. “Well, I should get some sleep…another ghost who wasn’t going to leave Leo alone.**

“Too right I’m not.” Beckendorf grinned. Leo laughed.

“That is the end of the chapter.” Aphrodite announced.

“I’ll read then.” Reyna offered. The goddess handed her the book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is two chapters in one day. These next few chapters are all quite small and quick to do.


	6. Leo VI

“Oh great. I get two chapters as well.” Leo groaned. “Seems like Jason is the lucky one.”

**“How did he die?” Leo asked. “I mean Beckendorf.”…Beckendorf didn’t make it out.”**

Percy cringed while everyone else wished Leo would stop talking about it. Except they couldn’t blame him for wanting to know.

**There was that name again—Percy Jackson, Annabeth’s missing boyfriend. That guy must’ve been into everything around here, Leo thought.**

“He did save Olympus.” Katie pointed out.

“Again. I know this now.” Leo reminded her.

Apollo scowled about that was how everyone seemed to know Percy now. ‘Annabeth’s boyfriend’ or, even worse ‘Annabeth’s missing boyfriend’. Not the saviour of Olympus or even the son of Poseidon. Just Annabeth’s boyfriend. He wondered if now Percy would just be thought of as ‘Apollo’s boyfriend’. Admittedly he much preferred that title but it made it sound like who Percy was dating was the only way of defining him. Which was ridiculous. Percy was awesome and should be recognized by his many, _many¸_ incredible accomplishments.

**“So Beckendorf was pretty popular?” Leo asked. “I mean —before he blew up?”**

“Wow. No tact whatsoever.” Annabeth said as everyone winced.

“Sorry.” Leo grimaced. “I didn’t mean that to come out so badly.”

“You’ve had a long and weird day.” Beckendorf shrugged.

**“He was awesome,” Will agreed.**

Beckendorf smiled as everyone nodded their agreement.

**“It was hard on the whole camp when he died. Jake…he’d always just had his mom—until she died.**

“It takes some getting used to.” Thalia nodded. Admittedly she didn’t have many siblings to get used to but it was a similar feeling to when she had joined the Hunt. They become her family and suddenly she had ten or fifteen new sisters who were looking to her to lead them.

**Kids came up and started shaking hands and introducing themselves… looked like he could go six rounds with Chuck Norris without breaking a sweat.**

“Harley is really strong.” Beckendorf smiled. “He can beat most of the older guys at arm wrestling.”

**And all the kids shared a sad kind of seriousness…an eye patch, six Ace bandages, and about seven thousand Band-Aids.**

Any humour quickly drained from Beckendorf’s face as he heard about the condition of his siblings. None as bad as Jake obviously but it wasn’t good. “Gods.” He breathed.

“We really need to find out how this curse happened and how to break it.” Will said anxiously.

“Agreed.” Chris nodded.

**“Well, all right!” Leo said. “I hear this is the party cabin!”…“I always wanted a sister who could beat me up.”**

“Now you’ve got several.” Connor snickered.

**Nyssa didn’t smile. “Come on, joker boy. I’ll show you around.”…“Monster-fighting class. Yeah, I already got my black belt in that.”**

“You wish, repair boy.” Piper smiled. “Out of the three of us, only Jason has that.”

“Yeah.” Leo grimaced. He was probably never getting anywhere near a black belt in that.

**She didn’t crack a smile. Leo hoped she wasn’t this serious all the time. His dad’s side of the family**

**had to have some sense of humor, right?**

“Yeah.” Beckendorf sighed. He hated hearing about his siblings like this. Especially as it was mostly because of him being gone. “But they’ve been through a lot.”

“I know.” Leo nodded gravely. At least they had broken the curse. The atmosphere in the cabin was loads better now.

**They passed a couple of guys making a bronze windup toy…before a camper grabbed a hammer and smashed the centaur to pieces.**

“Were you ok?” Nico asked.

“Yeah. Nothing major.” Leo smiled. “They were too small to do much damage.”

Hephaestus grimaced. He wished he was able to help his kids out.

**“Stupid curse!” The camper waved his hammer at the sky…And if we don’t figure out the dragon problem, it’s gonna get even worse.”**

“That’s Nyssa.” Beckendorf smiled. “Always practical.”

**“The dragon problem?” Leo hoped she was talking about…“You guys lost a dragon? A real full-size dragon?”**

“It’s a big Camp.” Michael shrugged.

**“It’s a bronze dragon,” Nyssa said…smashes down cabins, sets people on fire, tries to eat the satyrs.”**

“That’s very unpredictable.” Grover squeaked. “Those poor Satyrs.”

“And the people he sets on fire.” Percy muttered worriedly.

**“That’s pretty unpredictable.”…“You’ve got a life-size bronze dragon, and you want to destroy it?”**

“It’s setting people on fire and eating Satyrs.” Grover cried.

“ _Trying_ to eat Satyrs. He failed.” Leo corrected.

“That’s not any better.” Grover glared at him.

“Leo fixed the dragon problem.” Jason said. Leo grimaced. It wasn’t really fixed. Festus was broken. Now he would be a figurehead instead of a really cool dragon. Still. At least he had been rescued in some form.

**“It breathes fire,” Nyssa explained. “It’s deadly and out of control.”…Jake Mason tried. You saw how well that worked.”**

“Yeah. That’s bad.” Katie grimaced.

**Leo thought about Jake, wrapped in a body cast…Then we get metal cutters and … and finish the job.”**

Beckendorf and Leo both winced. Beckendorf was grateful for whatever Leo had done to save the dragon. He was too great to be destroyed, even if he knew the safety of the campers had to come first.

**They all looked sad. Leo realized they didn’t want to kill the dragon any more than he did.**

“Of course not.” Beckendorf sighed sadly. “But safety has to come first.”

“Yeah.” Leo frowned. “If only he had done a better job of fixing Festus. Then he thought about his drawing and realized that no matter how good of a job he had done, Festus’ destiny was to be the figurehead for the ship they were building. It did make him feel marginally better.

**“Guys,” he said. “There has to be another way.”…So don’t any of you have like fire resistance or something?”**

“No. That’s really rare. I don’t think I’ve ever known a child of Hephaestus with power over fire.” Will said, trying to think.

“The last known one was Thomas Faynor. The guy who started the Great Fire of London.” Annabeth told him.

“Oh. Yeah, that’s not good.” Katie winced.

“Still, it would be an incredible gift.” Beckendorf said, winking at Leo. He knew Leo didn’t like talking about it, and now he knew why given what had happened to his mom, but he had discovered Leo’s powers after working in the forge together.

**Nobody acted as if it was a crazy question…it usually means something catastrophic is about to happen.**

“Maybe that’s because catastrophic situations usually require demigods with great power.” Beckendorf pointed out. “Think about it, we’re facing two Great Prophecies in the space of a couple of years, and we’ve been given Percy. The most powerful demigod basically ever. Sometimes rare powers are just the way of giving us what we need to survive.”

“Beckendorf is right.” Annabeth nodded. “The catastrophes would probably have happened anyway. These powers are blessings, they can just seem like curses or warnings because the times when we need them the most are the most dangerous.”

Leo frowned. He had never thought about it like that. He would never be able to see his powers as a great thing, considering what happened to his mom but maybe they weren’t as much of a curse as he had thought. It was something he had already been coming to realize after the quest but when it was put the way Annabeth and Beckendorf had said it, he felt even better.

**And we don’t need any more catastrophes.”…If you could resist flames, you could get close to the dragon.”**

“It still has claws and teeth. Not to mention it’s big enough to squash you like a bug.” Percy pointed out.

“Details, details.” Leo smirked.

**“Then it would kill you with its claws and fangs,” Nyssa said…subdue the dragon without killing it, then maybe their curse would be lifted.**

Beckendorf looked over at Leo. It sounded like Leo was the one who would break the curse. Maybe that would give his brother some confidence in himself. It sounded like his life had sucked, more than most demigods, and yet he still managed to put on a brave face and crack stupid jokes. He swore to himself that he would look out for his younger brother.

**But they were stumped for ideas. Any camper who figured out…hours slipped away and bam—the day was over.**

“Yeah. I know that feeling all too well.” Percy grumbled.

“We all do.” Travis nodded.

**“Dinner,” Nyssa said. “Come on, Leo.”…pretended you weren’t scared, you usually didn’t get beat up.**

“But not always.” Percy said softly.

“No.” Leo agreed with a grim smile. He definitely had more in common with Percy than he had expected of a guy who was such a legendary figure around Camp. Not that all of those things were good things but at least it made Percy seem more human. This whole experience of reading his thoughts had been enlightening but it was only now they were recalling his own experiences that he realized exactly how alike they were.

**Even the baddest gangster kids would tolerate you, keep you around for laughs. Plus, humor was a good way to hide the pain.**

Percy caught his eye and gave him another understanding look.

**And if that didn’t work, there was always Plan B. Run away. Over and over…Then flames flickered to life, curls of red-hot fire dancing across his palm.**

“Woah.” Connor breathed. “You can control fire. That’s so awesome.”

“Not always.” Leo muttered to himself bitterly.

“That’s such a wicked power.” Travis agreed with his brother. “Are you completely immune to fire?”

“As far as I know, yeah.” Leo nodded. “No getting any ideas.” He added, noting the cheeky grins on the brother’s faces.

“The chapter is over.” Reyna told the room.

“At least both of mine were pretty quick.” Leo noted.

“I’ll read then.” Piper sighed. “It’s my turn.” Reyna handed her the book.


	7. Jason VII

Jason grimaced.

**As soon as Jason saw the house, he knew he was a dead man.**

“What?” Thalia exclaimed.

“I just had this feeling like I shouldn’t be there.” Jason explained. “it felt like enemy territory.”

“That’s the Roman in you.” Apollo noted.

**“Here we are!” Drew said cheerfully. “The Big House, camp headquarters.”…Every molecule in Jason’s body told him he was on enemy ground.**

Thalia frowned unhappily. She didn’t like that her little brother was so uncomfortable in pretty much the only place she had called home in a very long time.

**“I am not supposed to be here,” he said…always smelled like that, or if it was some kind of special perfume for the holidays.**

Drew laughed. “That’s my Christmas holiday perfume.” She told him. “It’s my favourite holiday.”

“It was…nice.” Jason said awkwardly. Piper scowled.

**Her pink eyeliner was really distracting. Every time she blinked…No doubt about that. But she made Jason feel uncomfortable.**

Drew pouted slightly. Still, she didn’t feel the same pull here towards Jason that she seemed to in the future. Sure, he was a _very_ fine-looking guy, but he was definitely taken. And Drew didn’t flirt with guys that were taken. If he left his girl for her then he clearly wasn’t trustworthy in the first place.

**He slipped his arm away as gently as he could…“Oh, please, tell me you are not dating the Dumpster Queen.”**

“There’s no need for that, Drew.” Silena told her sister.

“Hey, at least I called her a queen.” Drew grinned.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Piper scoffed.

**“You mean Piper? Um …”…He didn’t even know his own story. He couldn’t play with her emotions like that.**

“Good going on that front.” Piper smirked at him.

“Well, I couldn’t resist in the end. You’re too amazing.” Jason told her with a smile.

**Drew rolled her eyes. “Let me help you decide, sweetie. You can do better.**

“There isn’t anyone better than Piper.” Jason stated. Drew shrugged while Reyna frowned.

**A guy with your looks and obvious talent?”…“So isn’t everyone here your cousin or something?”**

“We try not to think about it.” Katie laughed.

**“Aren’t you cute! Sweetie, the godly side of your family…Turn around, kid, while you still can.**

“Leaving would be bad. Out on your own with no memories?” Thalia shuddered at the idea of Jason being in that much danger.

“Yeah. Definitely glad I stayed.” Jason nodded. He might have had to go on a quest but at least he had had Piper and Leo with him. He wouldn’t have survived without them.

**Then he heard footsteps on the front porch. No—not footsteps—hooves…The centaur’s eyes flared like a cornered animal’s. “You should be dead.”**

“What?” Thalia glared at Chiron. “What do you mean? How do you know Jason in the first place?”

“I suspect I don’t know Jason personally, rather I can tell that he is a Roman.” Chiron stated. “And that he is powerful. For a Roman demigod to have made it across the country, alone and alive is an incredible feat.”

“You sound upset that he isn’t dead.” Thalia pointed out unhappily.

“I’m likely unhappy a Roman demigod has appeared in the Camp.” Chiron corrected. “Lupa and I swore to help keep the Camps separate. And to never speak of the other Camp. His appearance is unlikely to mean anything good.”

**Chiron ordered Jason—well, invited, but it sounded like an order…But the weirdest thing was the stuffed leopard’s head above the fireplace.**

“Well, that’s new.” Will blinked.

“Why do we now have a stuffed leopard head in the Big House?” Clarisse wanted to know.

“Well, you need something to remember me by if father is going to be stubborn and keep Olympus closed for a while.” Dionysus smirked. Inwardly he was quite horrified by the idea of a stuffed leopard. Mortals really were terrible creatures.

“Really, Dionysus?” Chiron rolled his eyes. He dreaded to think what kind of random powers the leopard head would have. There was no way the god had simply left a plain stuffed head for their viewing. The wine god’s smirk widened.

**It looked so real, its eyes seemed to follow Jason…He thought it would help us to remember him. Mr. D has a strange sense of humor.”**

“My sense of humour is perfectly fine.” Dionysus huffed.

  
“No. It’s really not.” Hermes shook his head.

**“Mr. D,” Jason said. “Dionysus?”…Mr. D was appalled that someone would stuff such a noble creature.**

Dionysus and Artemis both scowled.

**He decided to grant it life, on the assumption that life…“If he’s only a head,” Jason said, “where does the food go when he eats?”**

“I wouldn’t ask.” Silena grimaced.

**“Better not to ask,” Chiron said. “Please, sit.”…The color of your shirt? Do you remember anything?”**

“He’s already explained he doesn’t remember anything.” Thalia said.

“I was probably wondering if it would come back to him.” Chiron shrugged.

**Jason looked at the tattoo on his forearm: SPQR…I don’t think we should worship them or sacrifice chickens to them or anything,**

Zeus rumbled in annoyance as his son’s words.

“And do you still hold this opinion?” Zeus asked his son. Jason swallowed.

“I mean, I don’t have anything against chickens but sacrificing a portion of dinner is ok.” He said.

**but they’re still around because they’re a powerful part of civilization…None can speak Latin fluently without practice.”**

“So, can you speak Ancient Greek now?” Reyna asked Jason curiously.

“I can read some, but Latin still comes to me much easier.” Jason admitted.

“It always will.” Chiron told him. “No matter how long you stay at our camp you will always have been born a Roman and so Latin will always come easier than Greek.” Jason nodded.

**Jason tried to wrap his mind around what that meant…“Thanks,” Jason said. “You must be an inspiring teacher.”**

“He is, _mostly_.” Percy grinned. “But he does have his moments.”

**“I am sorry, my boy. But it’s true…Annabeth’s boyfriend, the one who’s missing.”**

Apollo growled once more. There it was again; Percy just being known as Annabeth’s boyfriend.

**Chiron nodded. “I hoped that after he succeeded in the Titan War…a happy ending, and perhaps retire quietly.**

“What? You’re going to retire? We need you.” Annabeth cried.

“Well, it seems I will not be retiring for a while longer. But after this next prophecy, I might take a sabbatical.” Chiron stated. Most of the campers looked upset by with this news but they figured if anyone deserved a break it was Chiron.

**I should have known better. The last chapter approaches, just as it did before. The worst is yet to come.”**

“Worse than a Titan army?” Percy asked. “What exactly could be worse than Kronos?”

All of the gods exchanged horrified looks.

“It can’t be.” Hermes murmured.

“It would explain why father has closed Olympus.” Dionysus put in.

“That is still a stupid move. Once again, Zeus is closing off and trying to ignore the problem which we cannot afford to do. If it is indeed what we suspect, we cannot just stay on Olympus.” Poseidon glared at his brother. If it was the Giants, their children would need the gods.

“What is happening? What are we facing?” Clarisse asked angrily, looking around at all the gods.

“There is only one thing that could be worse than the Titans and that has happened before.” Ares told his daughter heavily. “The Giants.”

“Giants.” Annabeth gasped. “How can we possibly be that unlucky?”

“Ok. How bad is this?” Percy asked.

“The Giants were birthed by Gaea when the Titans were defeated the first time around. Each Giant was born to oppose a specific god.” Poseidon explained to his son.

“And they can only be killed by a demigod and a god working together.” Apollo added, glaring at Zeus.

“Well, isn’t that just fantastic.” Percy burst out. “It seems we are fresh out of gods because Zeus has decided to close Olympus…apparently when we need you the most.”

“It would appear so.” Poseidon said gravely. “Believe me I shall be discussing this with my brother.” Zeus swallowed nervously.

**In the corner, the arcade game made a sad pew-pew-pew-pew sound…part where I’m supposed to be dead? I don’t like that part.”**

“I don’t like that part either.” Thalia muttered.

**“I’m afraid I can’t explain, my boy. I swore on the River Styx and on all things sacred that I would never …” Chiron frowned.**

“Why would you swear never to talk about the Giants?” Connor asked.

“I swore not to talk about the Roman Camp or Roman demigods.” Chiron corrected. “Which is why I can’t tell Jason much.”

**“But you’re here, in violation of the same oath…Then dark mist boiled out of Seymour’s mouth, and an even worse thought occurred to Jason: storm spirits.**

“Storm spirits don’t have the power to freeze time.” Thalia stated with a frown.

**He grabbed the golden coin from his pocket…Jason wasn’t sure how he knew it was goatskin, but he recognized it and knew it was important.**

“Hera, or rather, Juno.” Zeus glanced sideways at his wife. “What are you doing visiting my son?” His wife paying any attention to his children never ended well.

“Well, if Hera is the one who brought him to Camp, she obviously has something in mind for him.” Demeter pointed out.

**Would you attack your patron? the woman chided.**

“What?” Zeus asked in confusion. “Why would _you_ be my son’s patron? You hate my children?” He asked his wife. She just shrugged.

“I do not know. But it explains why I would have chosen him to come to the Greek Camp.”

“Yes, we also need to talk about that.” Zeus glared at her. “Not only did you use _my_ son, you mixed the campers which is beyond dangerous.” Hera shrugged once more.

**Her voice echoed in Jason’s head. Lower your sword…It took me a full month to gather enough energy to work even the smallest magic through its bonds.**

“You’ve been captured for a _month_?” Zeus’ anger turned to concern.

“The same amount of time Olympus has been closed.” Hades noted.

“Fantastic, everything is going to Hades and as usual, Olympus don’t care.” Percy grumbled angrily.

“We are certainly going to change that.” Apollo promised. “Me and your dad are not going to let Zeus close Olympus.”

**I’ve managed to bring you here, but now I have little time left, and even less power. This may be the last time I can speak to you.**

“And I’m ok with that.” Jason muttered. Hera glowered at him.

**“You’re in prison?” Jason decided maybe he wouldn’t…He named you Jason, after my favorite mortal. You belong to me.**

“You did WHAT?” Thalia yelled at her father. “How could you give Jason to _HER_?” Zeus sighed.

“Breaking the oath is bad enough, the fact that he did it twice with the same woman?” Poseidon said. “Hera’s wrath would be incredible.”

“And there is the fact that Jason is a Roman demigod. You could not have grown up together because of the enmity between the two groups of demigods.” Apollo added.

“That does not mean he should give his child over to Hera like a parcel.” Thalia scowled.

**“Whoa,” Jason said. “I don’t belong to anyone.”**

**Now is the time to pay your debt, she said.**

“Jason doesn’t owe you anything.” Thalia snarled. “You have done nothing for him.”

**Find my prison. Free me, or their king will rise from the earth, and I will be destroyed. You will never retrieve your memory.**

“The king? I’m guessing she means the Giant king?” Annabeth asked anxiously.

“Porphyrion.” Athena stated grimly. “Born to oppose father.”

**“Is that a threat? You took my memories?”**

“Not a threat but a warning.” Hermes said. “If she took your memories, only Hera can restore them. And if Hera is destroyed, you will be unable to get them back.”

**You have until sunset on the solstice, Jason. Four short days. Do not fail me.**

“Nothing like an immediate deadline to get you moving.” Percy muttered.

**The dark woman dissolved, and the mist curled…“but I think your leopard just ate a goddess.”**

A few people chuckled.

**He told Chiron about the frozen-in-time visit…Piper’s head lolled like she was unconscious.**

“Piper.” Aphrodite said anxiously.

“I was ok.” Piper told her.

**“What happened?” Jason rushed over…The redheaded girl gulped. “I think I may have killed her.”**

“What? That does not sound ok!” Aphrodite yelled.

“I was fine, mom.” Piper assured her; the word strange in her mouth. “Rachel was exaggerating.”

“The chapter is finished.” Piper told the room.

“My turn.” Annabeth sighed.


	8. Piper IX

**Piper dreamed of her last day with her dad.**

Piper grimaced. This was not something she wanted everyone else to know. It was too personal. Why did this need to be in the stupid book?

**They were on the beach near Big Sur, taking a break from surfing...Piper knew the photographers would find him. They always did.**

“That sounds really sucky. Always being followed by paparazzi.” Rachel grimaced. She was glad that her dad wasn’t that kind of famous.

**“Nice job out there, Pipes.” He gave her the smile he was famous for…It took special talent to run over yourself with a surfboard.**

Everybody chuckled.

“I can help you if you want.” Percy offered.

“It’s ok thanks.” Piper smiled. “I appreciate it but I only surf to be able to spend time with my dad. I don’t really care about how good I am.” He nodded.

**Her dad was the natural surfer—which made no sense…“Let’s see: turkey pesto, crabcake wasabi—ah, a Piper special. Peanut butter and jelly.”**

“The best kind.” Will grinned.

“Peanut butter is the best.” Tyson added, grinning toothily.

“Crab cake wasabi?” Percy asked, wrinkling his nose. “That sounds disgusting.”

“It is.” Piper agreed.

**She took the sandwich, though her stomach was too upset to eat. She always asked for PB &J. Piper was vegetarian, for one thing. **

Grover let out a small cheer. They grinned at each other.

**She had been ever since they’d driven past that slaughterhouse in Chino and the smell had made her insides want to come outside.**

“Maybe I should take some of you lot there. I might be able to convert you.” Grover looked around at his friends.

“That’s something I don’t need to see. Or smell.” Percy said.

“Agreed. And nothing is putting me off my cheeseburgers.” Thalia stated.

**But it was more than that. PB &J was simple food, like a regular kid would have for lunch. **

“Yeah. I can’t say many regular kids eat crab cake wasabi sandwiches.” Katie laughed. Piper pulled a face.

**Sometimes she pretended her dad had actually made…fancy clothes Dad always offered, the designer shoes, the trips to the salon.**

“You turned down designer shoes?” Drew looked horrified.

“Yeah. I did. They were just empty gestures.” Piper shrugged.

“Even regular kids go to the salon though.” Silena stated. “They still need their hair cut.”

“I like my hair.” Piper said easily.

**She cut her own hair with a pair of plastic Garfield safety scissors, deliberately making it uneven.**

Aphrodite, Drew and Silena all winced at that.

“Safety scissors?” Annabeth asked with a laugh.

“It was all I could find.” Piper grinned a little sheepishly.

“Really, darling? Can I not just help a little with your hair?” Aphrodite asked, looking rather pained.

“No. I like my hair as it is.” Piper said firmly.

**She preferred to wear beat-up running shoes, jeans, a T-shirt, and her old Polartec jacket from the time they went snowboarding.**

“What if we help you find clothes you still find comfortable and yet are a little more stylish?” Silena offered.

“Yeah. Stylish doesn’t have to mean expensive.” Drew added.

“I’m fine with my style. I like it.” Piper told them. Then she realized that this was her siblings trying to find something in common with her. She had spent so long telling herself she was nothing like those other Aphrodite kids but these past couple of books had made her realize she wouldn’t mind being a little more like Silena.

“Maybe we could go through mom’s closets later.” Piper suggested. It would be horrific and probably terribly dull but maybe she _should_ make a little more effort to spend time with her siblings. Especially as she had become head councilor recently. Aphrodite squealed at that idea and the other kids all nodded eagerly which made Piper smile.

**And she hated the snobby private schools Dad thought were good for her.**

“Those suck.” Rachel agreed.

**She kept getting herself kicked out. He kept finding more schools…It was the first time they’d had a day together in what—three months?**

People shot Piper sympathetic looks.

**“What’s wrong?” He passed her a soda…Nothing off-limits, and you had to answer honestly.**

“Woah. I could not imagine doing that with my mom.” Will cringed.

“Me either.” Chris agreed.

“My dad simply wouldn’t care enough to do that.” Rachel shrugged. “Which in this case, I’m ok with.”

**The rest of the time, Dad promised to stay out of her business…not easy, but a way to feel like she actually had a father.**

“Has it gotten any better with your dad?” Annabeth asked.

“Yeah.” Piper nodded, smiling as she thought of the last time she spoke with her dad. “It really has.” It still hurt that her dad didn’t fully remember who she was but at least their relationship was much better than before. He had even said he was proud of her.

**“First question,” she said. “Mom.”…After you were born, she simply left. I never heard from her again.”**

Aphrodite sighed sadly.

**“Do you think she’s still alive?”…“Lot of similarities between Greek and Cherokee,” Dad agreed.**

“I think there is a lot of similarities in all mythologies.” Annabeth said thoughtfully.

**“Wonder what your grandpa would think if he saw us now…I don’t think I could sleep at night. I’d always be looking for somebody to blame.”**

Aphrodite sighed once more. The mortals who did not believe in the gods were always the hardest to leave. It always hurt them more deeply than those who could see through the Mist.

**Somebody to blame for Grandpa Tom dying of lung cancer, Piper thought, before Dad got famous and had the money to help.**

“I’m sorry, Piper.” Silena squeezed her sister’s arm gently.

**For Mom—the only woman he’d ever loved —abandoning him without even a good-bye note, leaving him with a newborn girl he wasn’t ready to care for.**

Aphrodite grimaced. She wanted to say that it looked like her father had done a fine job of raising Piper to be a good person, but something told her, her daughter may not appreciate that. It seemed her father had not been as involved as she or her daughter would have liked. Still, Annabeth had managed to make a good relationship with her father despite running away. Aphrodite hoped Piper could do the same.

**For his being so successful, and yet still not happy…Greek god that can help, make Jane take a header.**

“Really, Piper?” Jason asked, looking mildly amused.

“I just wanted to be able to enjoy one day with my dad.” Piper sighed.

“And there is nothing wrong with that.” Percy said. Between Leo’s mom and Piper’s dad, he was feeling more grateful than ever for his mom and Paul.

**I’m not asking for permanent damage, just knock her out for the rest of the day, please?**

“I wish I could.” Aphrodite muttered. Her daughter deserved some time with her father.

**But Jane kept advancing…Piper like she was a disgusting pet that had whizzed on the carpet.**

“Why does Jane dislike you so much?” Thalia asked, looking at her brother’s girlfriend sympathetically.

“Honestly, I’m not sure.” Piper shrugged. “I think she just hates everyone.” She didn’t mention the bit about Jane being controlled by Medea. She had been pretty horrible before that.

**Dad’s energy and enthusiasm drained away…“Don’t make this about me,” her dad said.**

“But it is about you.” Clarisse muttered.

**“I do the best I can, Piper. We’ve had this conversation.”…“That’s what I am. ” Her voice trembled. “A problem.”**

Piper cursed these stupid books as everyone shot her more sympathetic looks. Jason wrapped his arms around her waist and Silena still had a hand on her arm which did make her feel better. Still, she really hated people, especially Drew, hearing about this.

“You’re not a problem, Piper.” Aphrodite told her daughter softly to which Piper just nodded, unable to speak around the sudden lump in her throat.

**“Piper … you said you’d try. You let me down…Not this time. Not on something as huge as boarding school.**

“I know it sucks, but I’m kinda glad you had to go to boarding school or I’d have missed out on meeting you.” Jason told her with a small smile.

“Well, there is one silver lining.” Piper grinned happily in return.

Everyone felt bad for Piper. They couldn’t believe her dad was letting his assistant send Piper off to boarding school without even taking some time to consider it. However, they didn’t want to comment as they could tell that Piper just wanted to get this over with and didn’t need constant comments on her dad’s behaviour.

**“Go see her,” Dad said. “She’s got the details.”…Piper was just another problem of the day that Jane could now check off her list.**

“Woah.” Chris couldn’t help himself up. “Is she literally sending you on a plane that second? Your dad didn’t even say goodbye.” Piper grimaced.

“The flight was for later that day. We did say goodbye.” She didn’t mention exactly how brief that goodbye had been.

**Piper’s dream changed…its horrible frame of dreadlocks, braided with human bones.**

“Lovely.” Drew wrinkled her nose.

**It smiled, and Piper shivered…You have the word of Enceladus.**

“The Giant is called enchiladas?” Percy asked. Grover chuckled.

“Enceladus.” Athena rolled his eyes.

“And that is?” Percy asked.

“The Giant born to oppose mom.” Annabeth told him anxiously.

**Fail me … well, I’ve slept for millennia, young demigod…She woke feeling like she’d been trampled by an Irish step-dancing troupe.**

“Well, that was a horrible dream.” Silena noted.

“That was nothing.” Piper muttered grimly.

**Her chest hurt, and she could barely breathe…He’s just keeping an eye on things … so to speak.”**

A few people snickered while the others had heard all the terrible puns about Argus before and just rolled their eyes.

**Argus nodded. The eye on his chin winked…“Believe me, it was not my idea to get possessed.**

“So, Hera spoke to Piper through Rachel and she also spoke to Jason at the same time?” Thalia frowned.

“Aren’t we honored.” Piper muttered sarcastically. Leo was grateful Hera hadn’t actually decided to possess someone to speak to him. He’d had enough of her to last a lifetime.

**Chiron healed you with some nectar—”…and a fiery one, and something about the solstice.”**

“So, it’s not just the Giants.” Poseidon looked even more concerned. “ _She_ is waking.” All of the gods exchanged horrified looks. This situation just kept getting worse and worse.

“Er, who is ’she’?” Percy asked his dad.

“Gaea. The Earth itself.” Poseidon replied.

“Isn’t mother nature supposed to be nice?” Connor frowned.

“She can be, but she is also wrathful, and she loves her children. The Giants were born because we beat the Titans the first time.” Hermes informed his son. “And now they have been beaten again, so the Giants are rising once more. With their mother’s help.”

“Wonderful so now not only do we have a bunch of Giants to kill that can’t be killed without a god, who have decided to cower and hide on Olympus, we also have to fight Mother Earth herself?” Percy summed up.

“Which must be what the Great Prophecy refers to. ‘To storm or fire the world must fall’.” Annabeth quoted. “The world must mean Gaea.”

“Well, at least it says she must fall.” Thalia said, trying to be optimistic.

“let us keep reading. Hopefully this will tell us how to defeat our enemies.” Apollo sighed. He held Percy tighter, knowing that his boyfriend was totally going to be in the thick of everything. These next books were going to be horrible.

**In the corner, Argus made a rumbling sound in his chest…something that might restore his memories.”**

“Oh, Annabeth strikes again. What idea?” Connor asked.

“I have no idea.” Annabeth shrugged.

Jason then explained about what had happened in the Hypnos cabin. The Greeks were all delighted to hear about one of the new cabins in such detail and spent a good ten minutes grilling Jason for every detail he could possibly remember. Thankfully this break in the reading also allowed the tension to dissipate slightly. Everyone was still on edge with the news about Gaea and the Giants, but it was no longer hovering over them with quite so much cloying fear.

**“That’s … that’s great.”…She didn’t want their relationship to be just a trick of the Mist.**

Aphrodite glowered at Hera once more. She would show that goddess that love was not be trifled with.

**Get over yourself, she thought. If she was going to save her dad…All show and no substance. A fake, just like Piper.**

“You are not fake.” Jason said hotly.

“Agreed. You were just put in a horrible situation.” Silena nodded, a feeling she knew all too well. “Nobody can blame you for wanting to save your father.”

**And its name was Katoptris, looking glass…cannibal giant, you also get to betray the guy you like! How awesome is that?**

“Sorry, Piper.” Rachel winced.

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know and you were just trying to help.” Piper smiled at her. “In any other situation that would have made me feel loads better.” The future Oracle returned her smile.

**“Hey,” Rachel said. “No need to cry. You’ll figure it out.”…When you know who your godly parent is, things might be clearer.”**

Piper fought back a scoff. Absolutely nothing had been made clearer once she knew who her mom was. In fact, quite a bit had gotten worse except that it allowed her to go on the quest with Jason.

**Clearer, Piper thought. Not necessarily better…“I hope it’s Athena.” She looked up, afraid Rachel might make fun of her, but the oracle just smiled.**

Aphrodite huffed while Annabeth smiled at Piper.

“You didn’t want me to be your mom?” The love goddess looked at her daughter. Piper grimaced.

“Honestly, not really.” She admitted. “But I don’t mind now.” Drew snorted.

“Oh, don’t do us any favours.” She scowled at Piper. Who did she think she was, coming into their camp and determining that Drew was going to be her enemy? On top of that, there was her attitude of looking down on the Aphrodite cabin and that was something Drew wouldn’t stand for. Her cabin was disrespected enough, she would not allow her so called sister to do the same thing.

**“Piper, I don’t blame you. Truthfully?...You’re supposed to sound all mysterious.”**

Everybody laughed a little at that.

**Rachel laughed. “Don’t be giving away my secrets, Piper…Let’s go find out who you are.”**

“That’s the chapter done.” Annabeth said.

“That makes it my turn to read then.” Clarisse grimaced. She took the book and began reading.


End file.
